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Recorded bird calls: which reaction? (1 Viewer)

gmax

Sontium Dweller
Since I'm a complete beginner to bird sounds and calls, I'd like to know among European birds which ones are more sensitive/reactive to recorded calls (for example I noticed that robins react quite well) ... I'd like to start using calls when out in the open (mainly marshes/swamps/wetlands) where bird numbers are rather low ...
Any suggestion on basic equipment to be used? Watt power?
Thank you for your help
Max
 
gmax said:
Any suggestion on basic equipment to be used? Watt power?
Thank you for your help
Max

Before getting some gear you might want to think about whether this is something you should be doing as a beginner. You will find both points of view presented on http://birderblog.com/post.php?id=1146 and the attached article.

I had thought that playback was a peculiarly US disease and maybe the birds and cultural norms were different there. In Europe is has been discouraged as the hallmark of the lazy and impatient. However, the recent Autumnwatch on the BBC had Simon King calling in tawny owls with a ghetto blaster and lamping them with a torch. This was apparently all right according to other BFers as people could use the technique to show their kiddies owls, bringing up a new generation of birders by lighting their nascent passion for the natural world. The ends justify the means in this case it seems. Clearly the 'minimise disturbance' principles of sound recordists have changed of late, and the Sound Approach to Birding guys also didn't think it was an issue.

If you feel you must do this then the trick seems to be to issue one call, and wait a decent while for a reply before trying again, as opposed to the usual approach or sticking a track on auto-repeat on the principle that more is better. I don't have portable speakers and don't feel the need to get some so I'm not speaking from personal expertise here , but that's what the Sound Approach guys said in birdwatch magazine. The article is called Sound Judgement and is on page 31 of the November 2006 Birdwatch magazine. I defer to Mark Constantine's experience but the thought of loads of yahoos charging about with turbocharged ipods as a result of that does not fill me with joy.
 
ermine said:
... the thought of loads of yahoos charging about with turbocharged ipods as a result of that does not fill me with joy.
:clap:

Thank you Ermine for your answer; your words and the related blog article (very interesting, thank you) poses some important ethic questions each of us should ask oneself.

I was already aware of some of these issues, but knowing other people's opinions may help in clarifying what's involved in a behaviour definitely new to me.

My question was related to (and instigated by) my one-and-only "audio" experience I had some time ago in a hide where a fellow birder used his audio equipment to draw nearer a small group of sandpipers feeding on a nearby mudflat: it worked fine, the birds kept on feeding quite close to us and we enjoyed "our (his)" photographic opportunity.
This does not mean that using playback is always harmless to bird, but on that occasion a moderate approach was adopted.

Now I think I'll have to ponder better my reaction to this "hallmark": my ideal area where to eventually use this equipment is located so to discourage lazy and impatient birders ;) (1.5 hours walk to reach it; an open bog/marsh with low vegetation surrounded by sea; a small hide is needed)

Thank you again for your answer; I hope to receive further comments on this delicate matter

Max

PS where could I get any reference to "Sound Approach to Birding" - I'm afraid I'd have hard times in getting the magazine issue you refer to - ?
 
ill feelings

In my previous post I asked for some further comments ... now searching through the forum, I found here some straightforward replies to a similar matter:


Play that [mp3] in the open in the UK without good scientfiic/conservation reason and you should be staked out on a rock and your liver pecked by eagles IMO... [unquote]


Not only is "tape luring" (which is what you're doing) illegal in some circumstances, it's a crappy trick to play on territorial birds during the breeding season (ie now).
A good way to make yourself very unpopular very quickly - are you really so desperate to see birds that you can't just find them the "normal" way?
[unquote]


tape playback / luring seems to generate a lot of ill feeling ... if used responsibly it isn't a problem, certainly no more so than a lot of situations that arise in the general course of birding ... common sense is the point ... can't see a need for it in UK really though [unquote]


may I ask (without taking a side) what everyone's stance on imitating calls using your mouth (vs. a tape) is? I assume it's the same seeing that the bird is disturbed. Also what's everyone's stance on flushing birds up (the whole "pshhh pshhh" thing)? [unquote]

There seems to be a range of different approaches and facets on the matter.

Any further comments?
 
I think the issues arise because playback is incredibly easy to misuse, and also because the mimicry is uniquely unfair to a bird.

Birding can hardly be described as a zero-impact activity on the birds anyway, but the birds have to occupy a world inhabited by big animals including humans and therefore recognise these as such and avoid when they feel threatened. So the impact of birders going around a reserve isn't a particular issue. Birds have had thousands of years to adapt to other creatures.

Playback, on the other hand is a sneaky use of our superior technology to create a virtual bird, of the desired species, in order to make the bird appear and do something. It does nothing for the bird, and makes it perform for us. It is a technology that has only really been practical for the last 10-20 years or so, so it is new to birds. Okay, you can say those of us who feed garden birds also make them perform for us, but the birds do this electively and they get something out of it - easy food.

Playback has added to scientific knowledge and has been used in field ornithology. I don't have an issue with it there. Where I do have an issue with it for recreational birding to get the tick/better pictures/better views is that there's no return for the bird at all. It is purely for your gratification, and this seems unsporting to me. However, you have taken the steps to inform yourself and think about the issues, so you would probably use it with some thought.

What I do hate about playback is where it will go. Responsible use giving due respect for the birds and your fellow birders would be okay. It would be a real shame if our bird reserves start to echo with birdsong - most of it emanating from the species Homo ipodus.

I write from a UK perspective where reserves are relatively few and quite small and birders are many, so this will lead to a bad situation in the UK very quickly. I guess if your reserves are large and/or your birders are few the problems are less likely to show for a while and the birds may be able to move away from the noise. In which case you may be okay. At least you have looked at other viewpoints before acting :)
 
When making this ethical decision, one of the questions you ask yourself is: "how much does the playback affect the bird". Well, obviously it tends to wind up territorial birds in the short term quite effectively - that's why it works - but that's only a pretty short-term stress, right?
Unfortunately, there is some scientific evidence that playback has long-term repercussions. Mennill et al (2002 - you can find the paper as a pdf here: http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/biology/dmennill/Science873.pdf) played back black-capped chickadee songs to males in two 6-minute long bouts. Depending on how the played-back song was timed to overlap or not with the male's own song, this little bit of playback significantly altered how attractive the male's female found him (this was manifested by the female cheating on him with a neighbour, and measured using DNA analysis of the chicks).
The conclusion from this and several other papers: birds listen in to vocal interactions between neighbours, and use this information to assess the quality/aggressiveness of each other. When you construct a "fake" territorial interaction by playback of song in a bird's territory, his mate and his neighbours are all listening in, and you *may* be disturbing the social interactions between all these individuals over a timescale of a whole breeding season.
[playback of calls that do not have an aggressive territorial function would have completely different, and likely less severe ramifications]
 
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When we wrote the Sound Approach to Birding (from which the Birdwatch article was edited) we had been discussing tape luring for some time. Personally I seldom use playback. In fact I think I've used it twice in a decade, so it wasn't my own experience that drew me to my conclusions rather it was using the huge amounts of reference material created when researchers have used playback, seemingly without great harm. For example I could find no papers describing females deserting the nest, one of the most commonly used critisisms of the technique. As lachlustre has said extra-pair copulation is very common in passerines and is being found more frequently as DNA work is undertaken whether or not play-back is used. Still I'm looking forward to reading Menhills paper and was not aware of it when writing the book.

Gently interacting with birds using a whistle or whistling yourself seems more acceptable by birders and is far more skillful. For example in marshes you will find very gentle spishing will draw birds like Reed, Marsh, Sedge or even Aquatic Warblers up the reed stems and is well worth practicing. Clapping your hands suddenly will often get a reaction from the rails including Water Rail and Purple Gallinule.

Wooden whistles are good fun too. Try typing Quelle est Belle Company into Google, they do Moorhen Coot and various Duck and Geese callers. You may need to practice a french accent when using them though. ;)

Good luck

Mark Constantine
 
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