Brutkey

Ross of Ottawa
@ottaross@mastodon.social

The ornithology Q…

is there a means by which bird calls are captured/documented on paper, or other _non-audio_ means?

The only method I can imagine would be to record, slow down maybe 10x, then use musical notation

Ross of Ottawa
@ottaross@mastodon.social

I'm aware of modern sonograms etc, but I suspect intrepid Victorian explorers must've made some attempt at it with pen and ink.

Chuck in the Galapagos with the finches for example?

Ross of Ottawa
@ottaross@mastodon.social

Here's a bit of info on the art of bird sound description and transcription I dug up.

There's more standardization there than I realized, in the construction of sound-descriptive syllables, but it still seems rather imprecise, leaving much to the subjective interpretation of the watcher/recorder.

I guess it would aid in identification but would be unlikely to help in tracking subtle frequency changes or timing drift over years or decades.

https://soundapproach.co.uk/blogs/blog/translating-bird-sounds-into-words