Product Description

BIRDING BY EAR uses an educational and entertaining method for learning bird songs. Instead of merely providing a catalog of bird song samples, BIRDING BY EAR actually teaches. This proven method has greatly enhanced the field experience for birders across North America. The authors have created learning groups of similar vocalizations and clearly point out distinguishing characteristics. Using techniques such as phonetics, mnemonics, and descriptive words, Walton and Lawson provide a context for learning the songs and calls of eighty-five species of birds found east of the Rockies. Combine the auditory instruction here with the visual features of the Peterson Identification System. Page numbers in BIRDING BY EAR's booklet refer to species descriptions in the PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA, fifth edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41834 in Books
• Brand: Peterson Books
• Published on: 2002-04-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 3
• Binding: Audio CD
• 64 pages

Review
"(Birding by Ear and More Birding by Ear) are the best tools yet for learning bird vocalizations." - Science Times

About the Author
Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world's greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars, and the Peterson Field Guides® are credited with helping to set the stage for the environmental movement.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
GRAY CATBIRD Dumetella carolinensis (p. 248) Disk 1: track 2: time 3:56 Habitat: Dense thickets and undergrowth. This bird often sings from its preferred habitat and thus stays out of sight. Voice: Song a disjointed medley of harsh, squeaky, and nasal phrases with occasional sweet notes. Each phrase is normally given only once. Call note: A harsh, catlike meeoow; also a harsh, crackling series of notes. Notes:

Text and narration copyright © 1990 by Richard K. Walton and Robert W. Lawson. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.

Customer Reviews

Birding by Ear - First set
Birding by Ear is an excellent way to learn to identify birds. It is just going to take me some time to get through all the calls and get them in my poor brain. Not the fault of the cd's - just the fault of my overworked brain.

Love this CD
Birding by Ear is a great group of 4 CD's for beginner birders. It has great illustrations in the accompanying book and the narrator is wonderfully helpful. We love it!!

Even better on CD!
We live on 10 acres and have wondered what birds make certain calls. These CDs teach you how to learn the calls and songs in a fun way. (Who knew there was a difference in a song and a call?) We found out that we had birds we didn't know we had because we had never seen them, but after learning their songs, we started looking and have seen brightly colored orioles and indigo buntings. You would think you could see a brightly colored orange bird, but knowing what to look for is a great help. The way the author teaches is with easy to remember tricks. It is a great teaching device for kids too. There are lots of hints on how to best use the CD's too. Even knowing just a few songs makes you more aware of the sounds around you. The other night I heard "who cooks for you? who cooks for you all?" I went and woke my daughter up and asked, what bird says that? She knew right off it was a Barred Owl and got up to come hear it in person. Awesome CDs. We also bought "More Birding by Ear" but haven't had time to listen to it yet. They even have a list of songs at the end so you can see if you remember what you learned. The songs are also grouped by type to help you remember them. Similar sounding songs are also placed next to each other so that it makes it easier to tell the difference between them. There was a lot of thought put into making this such a great product and it is well worth it! I am not an audio learner, but even I am getting better at ID'ing birds by their sounds.