Research Focus, Victorian Birds - Recording Birdsong in the Field

Field surveys are a key tool for understanding species distributions and seasonal movement patterns across the landscape, and this can be done through both sight and sound.

Equipment like these field recorders capture audio at a site over days, weeks, months and even years, recording all the vocalisations of the species that occur there and giving researchers a better idea of changes in wildlife communities over time.

Many birds have distinctive calls that are unique to their species, allowing sophisticated computer models to automatically recognise their songs from the collected audio data, and determine which birds are present at a given site.