Eyes up: logging birds by voice
David Lyons | Guest Contributor
Spend a morning with almost any group of birders and you will notice it. Heads go up for the bird, then down to the phone or notepad to log it, then up again, hoping it is still there. Keeping a list is part of the pleasure of birding, but the way most of us keep it takes our eyes off the birds.
For photographers it is harder still. With a camera in your hands you are already choosing between the lens and the binoculars, and a list rarely gets a look in.
We see this on every tour. Our co-founder and lead guide, Clayton Smith, has spent 25 years guiding in the Wet Tropics, and much of what BirdScribe knows about how birders work came from him. We developed BirdScribe, a free app for iPhone and Android that lets birders keep lists by voice.
Pop your phone in your pocket and an earbud in your ear. When you see a bird, press the button on the earbud, or on the microphone if your headset is wired, and say what you saw: “two Rainbow Bee-eaters on the wire”, “Laughing Kookaburra calling”. A short tone confirms the entry, and you can continue birding without putting down your binoculars or camera.
BirdScribe transcribes the observation, works out the species name and count from what you say, records whether the bird was seen or heard, and attaches a location. At the end of the walk, you can review and edit the list, then import it into eBird or export it as a CSV file.
You still need to know your birds. BirdScribe is not a field guide and does not identify birds for you. You say the bird’s name and it goes on your list. If the app is unsure what it heard, it flags the entry for checking, and you can replay your voice recording. The observations remain the birder’s own.
That surprised a few of our early testers who were not birders. They assumed it worked the other way round: describe a small brown bird with a streaky chest and the app would tell you what it was. That is exactly what BirdScribe will not do. The technology is designed to record observations, not generate identifications.
One challenge is the many different names birders use for the same species. BirdScribe recognises common alternatives, such as “peewee” for Magpie-lark, and users can add their own shorthand. We see a lot of Mistletoebirds, so we have taught ours that “misty” means Mistletoebird, and “sulphur” means Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. The exported record uses the standard species name.
Pocket Mode helps prevent accidental screen touches, and voice notes for a trip diary remain on the phone. No account or sign-in is required.
Birders around Cairns, as well as in the UK, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States, have helped test and refine the app.
Voice logging does have its limits. Wind is the biggest one: on an exposed ridge or a boat deck, gusts can drown out what you say. David Campbell, one of our testers in the UK, found the answer at a windy Spurn: a small furry windshield over his headset mic, the kind used on camera microphones. When it is simply too windy, you can type the bird instead, and matching species from your region appear as you type. The app only listens after you press the button, so general chatter in a group is not recorded, but a voice close by during your entry can end up in it, which is when replaying the recording earns its keep. And where silence matters, in a hide or with a skulking bird a few metres away, speaking is not an option. In those moments we stay quiet and add the bird once it has moved on.
It works best when birds come thick and fast and you want your eyes on them rather than on a screen. It also copes with patchy coverage: with no signal, your entries are kept and processed once you are back in range. And it handles incidental sightings. If a Southern Cassowary crosses the road ahead, a quick voice entry can capture the incidental sighting without interrupting your birdwatching.
For many birders, keeping a list is part of the enjoyment of being in the field. But those observations can also contribute to a much bigger picture. Records collected consistently over time can help document changes in bird distribution, seasonal movements, and local populations. Making it easier to record observations, particularly during busy or challenging birding conditions, may encourage more people to contribute to that growing body of knowledge.
BirdScribe is free to use and is funded by our birding tour business. We developed it in the hope that making field recording easier would encourage more birders to keep records.
We welcome feedback from Australian birders about how voice logging works in different places and birding situations. More information about the app is available at birdscribe.com, and questions or feedback can be sent to david@birdscribe.com.
Editor’s note: BirdScribe is a free bird-recording app developed and funded by Kingfisher Birding, a commercial birdwatching tour operator based in Kuranda. This article was contributed by the developers. Its publication does not constitute an endorsement of the app or business by BirdLife Northern Queensland.
