@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?
@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