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Cheapest way to start recording birds (1 Viewer)

Sbiriguda

Well-known member
This is a question you will probably hate
I checked out the price of the microphones and recorders you recommend here and I was shocked of how expensive they are
By now I don't really need to record the sounds. I would like to start just to get a first idea on how to do that, and start recognizing the birds and identifying them
What solution would you suggest spending very little or if possible no money at all, for example using a mobile phone or something like that?
Thanks
 
Hello Sbirguda. I have just purchased a used Olympus LS10 and it is a brilliant small recorder. They have now been superseded but can still be obtained used. It is compact enough to carry in a pocket and records bird song very well using the Olympus Zoom setting. I tried using a smartphone with a small external Rode microphone but the Olympus is much superior. I believe some of the later Olympus models are not as good but the LS11 and is also said to be OK. If at some future date you want to take it to a more advanced level I believe that ithe LS10 is recommended as on of the recorders to use with Telinga parabolic mics. Hope this helps
 
If you have a smartphone, you may be able to make reasonable recordings just with that.

Similarly, if you have a digital camera that can take video, that can also work well just using its built-in mic. For example, I have an Olympus OM-D E-M5II that I used to take some video of birds in Costa Rica recently. I then lifted the audio out of the video and did minimal processing to make it compatible with eBird/Macauley Library.

I also have the Olympus LS-11 mentioned by watrob above, but haven't really messed with it much.

So, take whatever you've got, go down to the park, and experiment a little.

Regards,
Dan
 
The Rode recording app for smartphones has been recommended to me and I know of one BF member who swears by it.

I use an LS-10s and have the Rode app on my phone as back-up.
 
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