I had the honor of being a field research associate (bird filmmaker) for the Cornell Lab for several years. Each year during breeding season I would head out to locations in the US and Mexico to video record the breeding activities of dozens of bird species. I was always in the kind and knowledgeable company of an accomplished audio recordist, a scientific member of the Lab's Macaulay Library. I had the privilege of listening with headphones to the dawn chorus in several locations. Most notably we were in the Hill Country of Texas...I had the headphones on as the audio recordist had the parabolic reflector microphone system "aimed" into the nearby thicket. It was pre-dawn and initially there were some scattered wildlife sounds...insects and a few birds. As the minutes elapsed, the sound in my headphones became louder and more full of birdsong until it became one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The sound was so clear and the variety of birds vocalizing is still impossible to describe. I love being a natural history filmmaker!!! Thank you Cornell Lab of Ornithology for bringing one of my life's greatest dreams to fruition!
I'd really like to see a section on the best mics for use with a mobile/cell phone. A lot of us don't have the money to splash out on a 'full system' like most of your videos show. There are mics like th RØDE VideoMic Me-C which attach to the newer cellphones using USB-C, but is it any good for bird call recording? Also if anyone has any advice on which app(s) to use to record bird calls that would be really useful :)
Specifically for use with this amazing app for identification - NOT studio level recording. There is a big difference there. We're looking for amplification sufficient enough for the apps algorithm to detect the bird. Basically, are the micropones on a phone like a Samsung S10 going to be just as sufficient as any reasonable microphone purchased that works with mobile devices?
Probably depends a lot on the quality of your phone and its integrated mic... best of both worlds (price and portability) would be to find a cheap smartphone with excellent mic/audio, that will be hard to beat. You can find excellent little mics for cameras, etc. but they cost hundreds! Merlin seems to be able to discriminate different sounds very well, so I'm not sure it would be better with a directional mic? I haven't tried to connect my audio gear to my phone with Merlin running to see if it makes a difference (I need the right cable) but the result might not be obvious, and birds don't sing/call on demand, for a perfect comparison you'd need 2 phones, same model, one connected to the mic, the other not! and compare in real time...
Today I recorded with my cheap smartphone vs a good recorder and directional mic at the same time, then I compared the results of Merlin on the phone and BirdNET analyzer with .wav files (both are supposed to share the same AI models to ID birds sounds)... I got a bit more species with the recorder, but also more fails, ie species that were incorrectly ID'd... Some were missed by both, other I could not discriminate by ear but apparently present, since both the phone and recorder found them, sometimes not at the same moment!
I'm a beginner with shotgun mics and I use mine outdoor for recording birds. Using it for the very first time I was surprised about the good focus, but after a while (and after having analized the recordings) I found out, that the sound from the sides is recorded too, but 1) only the lower frequencies and 2) with a different phase. This makes the whole sound a bit like coming out of a toilet, and I have no solution for that problem.
I wouldn't say small recorders have omni directional microphones. Most of the times they have two directional microphones, cardioid figure. Two omni microphones spaced less then 30 cm would be almost useless as it will not provide stereo separation and small recorders are not that big. Maybe the video should say "stereo" instead of "omni directional". Other than that bird song or call recording is fantastic, very challenging and sometimes very satisfying. cheers
Yes, a parab is difficult to aim by itself, but it is relatively easy to make a sighting device (like a 'gunsight') for it. Particualrly on a transparent reflector as shown here. it is well worth it for the extra performance. Also, it doesnt have to be a 'perfect' parabola, which means home made ones will work very well.
The shotgun microphone is a sennhiser me67/k6 (discontinued with no real good replacement) with a rycote softie for a windscreen and a rycote shockmount. Sennhiser ME series was a legend, rock solid design, and tack sharp sound for a decent price. The parabola is wildtronics or something, I think it’s a replacement for the Telinga which (paired with the ME62, another sennhiser legend) was a staple for a long time. I think Telinga redesigned all their stuff, became too expensive so Lab of O switched. I currently have no suggestions on what to get.
@@charliedroves5610 you can still get sennheiser easily in good used condition. It’s not like fad electronics smartphones where they have planned obsolescence built in so long as you take care of it it lasts forever.
@@kishascape good point but If im going to shell out $300 , I prefer new, just my preference. You have no idea what that used mic on eBay went through. You could get a lightly used one from a occasional hobbiest or one that spent its career bouncing around the back of a news van everyday.About 15 years ago saw a used Telinga universal and haven’t seen one since.
If you want to have something smaller, then a shotgun mic like the Sony ECM-B10 is less noticeable and has a more professional look (less dingus). The thing is, though, that parabolic really is the only way to go to actually BOOST the "volume" of the sound from the bird. But a shotgun mic can be much better than a phone or even camera mic.
@@komicsreviewer8505 yes here are the levels: 1) just use your phone, 2) use a dedicated recorder although it may capture a lot of sounds other than the birds still 3) use a parabolic style dish which focuses just on what you are pointed at, and also serves to "amplify" the signal yielding best result. Also look at wildtronics pro mini.
