Portable Bird song gadget??

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Can anybody help me?

I've been looking for a kind of portable bird song database, where you take it out in the field with you and use it to ID the bird you are hearing. I've seen them in magazines before but can't find any now

Sorry for the poor description hopefully somebody will know what i'm on about.

Thanks

[Kev Lewis]

If you have a pda the RSPB bird guide for a PC also has the PDA version on it. Bird description, images, song, locations, population. habitat etc etc etc

[Lance Morgan]

Originally Posted by Lincs Yellowbelly

Can anybody help me?

I've been looking for a kind of portable bird song database, where you take it out in the field with you and use it to ID the bird you are hearing. I've seen them in magazines before but can't find any now

Sorry for the poor description hopefully somebody will know what i'm on about.

Thanks

I have one and its called a brain
There are cd's but I don't know how you can use them in the field without a lot of messing about.

[rlchew]

This was reviewed in "Birdwatching" magazine recently ....

BirdVoice

Not cheap though!

Richard

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

That looks pretty nifty although quite expensive

It's not actually for me, a friend of mine is retiring soon and i was thinking of a gift for him i always say "did you hear that (whatever) bird?" and he always says he's not good on bird calls and songs, although he loves birds so i thought this may help him.

[Kymba]

You can d/l Bird songs from the computor and then you can put them onto an I Pod or MP3 player

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Kymba

You can d/l Bird songs from the computor and then you can put them onto an I Pod or MP3 player

nice one - i think there are a fair few on wab

also i could probably copy my cd (which came with the colins book) and shoot them over to you as mp3

mind you the main problem is that while you are scrolling through your mp3 player with ear phones in you cant hear the dirs that are singing - perhaps a better bet would be to take a digital recorder into the field with you then try and ID them when you get home - to get really clear recordings you would need a directional mike but these are expensive to buy/make

[rolf]

I ended up buying a Remembird, more for recording than listening to calls in the field, but there is a card available for it with British bird calls. Again, this unit isn't cheap, but if he is really keen and wants to also log the calls he has heard, it could be ideal for him.

[rolf]

Sorry, duplicate submission. Please delete.

[richardkm]

I have used two different ways. I have recorded my birdsong CDs onto a minidisc and indexed the tracks in my field guide. The other system is the Collins eGuide on my PDA. The latter is excellent for its illustrations and log facility, but some of the sound recordings are poor - the Cuckoo is particularly bad, surprisingly - and many are just too short to give a real feel for the call.