BirdVoice

I can remember the first time I heard Wood Warbler singing, in a wood near Winchester as a boy-birder after listening to it on an LP disk of bird song – long ago now. I picked up several bird songs from that recording, listening at home and taking the memory into the field and finding what I was after. The years rolled by and bird songs became available on cassette tapes, dreadful things on which it was more difficult than ever to wind to the right place and find the one you wanted. Then came CDs which on which you could select the species you were after. Along with a Walkman I used CDs for years as backup on my dawn chorus event walks with beginners, though selecting species was far from quick; swapping disks, looking up and then dialling up the species by number.

Thus, over the years, we have probably all mused “Why can’t I have a bird book which just plays me the song?” Now there is an answer and as usual it has been technology, for which we have had to wait, to the rescue – that and someone with the workable idea. BirdVoice provides exactly what we were thinking of – bird-songs straight off the page.

The key element in the system is the AMP3 player, the size of a large highlighter pen and with a blunt-point tip. You point it to a spot for what you want to hear for any of 270 bird species – the song, call or a verbal description. And it just plays it to you, right there and then; just what you always dreamed of - technology at its best.

BirdVoice comes as the player with one or all of the keys for it to work. You can have the picture-guide of all 270 species alongside each of which are the three elements – the song, call or verbal description. Then you could have the slim pocket version, a fold-up species list from which you call up whichever you want. These basic components come in a neat organiser. Or you can go the whole hog and make your usual bird book into just what you always wanted it to be – you stick a species’ sticker on the right page and there it is – bird-song straight off the page of the book you have always used – and now it really does sing to you. A very neat and effective device bringing your birding into the 21st century. It does not come cheap but you do end up with an MP3 player with all the other things it can do for you.

For more details with an on-line demonstration go to www.birdvoice.co.uk

John Tucker

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