The birdsong echoes in my head / Jennifer Olitt

A new app can help birders identify birds based on their chirps

Birdsong, or, to use the more technical term, vocalization, is one of the means used by avid ornithologists to identify different species of birds in the wild, alongside the traditional identification based on characteristic visual signs. But how is it possible to record in writing the sounds that the birds make? Of course, you can use the common notation in music, but not all birders are musicians. Printed bird definers often use vague phrases like "a distant melancholy song" or cryptic combinations like "tee-doo-doo-it." But how can such images help birders identify the sounds of birdsong in the field?

Credit: Stefan Schwartz, iStockphoto

Two enterprising researchers from Ecuador believe that they have the solution to both problems together. Hugo Jacome Andrade and David Fara Fuente developed software "that converts sounds into a sequence of numbers, which can be easily converted and printed as a QR code. The two already launched a prototype version of the software in November 2011, at a conference of the Acoustical Society of America. Participants in the conference were given the opportunity to see with their own eyes how the system imports recorded sounds and converts them into a QR code and then, "decodes" the code using a standard code scanner, found in every smart phone.

In the next step Jacque Andrade and Fara Fuente do plan to adapt the software so that it can be used as an application for smart phones, like a mobile catalog in the format of an e-book that allows searching. Such an app would be the ultimate bird setter for birdwatchers. Instead of carrying heavy and expensive equipment with them on their trips and tours in the field, the birders will be able to go for observations at the birding sites armed only with a mobile phone with a built-in camera. Once the sounds of birdsong are heard, the birders will be able to activate the application. Their smartphone will respond with an image of the chirping bird (for visual identification) and a visual code that can be played to verify that the recorded sounds do indeed match the chirping they just heard. "An end to the confusing descriptions of tweeting voices!" Jacqueum Andrade and Fara Fuente concluded.