Birdsong dialects and recording the Australian outback

Australian landscape artist Vicki Powys has been field-recording wildlife since 1986. She has written many papers on birdsong, and, for 12 years, was sound editor for the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group. On her website, she also shares DIY recording setup advice and instructions.

Not only does this seem to be a remarkably beautiful career, but reading her papers gave me a sense of the utmost care and curiosity deployed in the tactics she uses to observe songbirds.

I caught up with Vicki to find out more about her work, and very much appreciate the time she took to answer a few questions for Earth.fm. 

How did you start with sound, specifically?

I have an interest in how sounds, and birdsong, can evoke memories of times and places. There is something very beautiful in evocations, that goes beyond science.

What has been your process, over the years, for learning so much about birds, and how is it interwoven with your sound and visual practice? Has one driven the others, or have they grown together?

In 1970, I moved from the city to the country. A friend gave me a vinyl LP record, The Birds Around Us, featuring the calls of 32 Australian birds; learning to identify birds from their calls was an exciting approach for me.

Later in the 1970s, I took part in the citizen science project the Atlas of Australian Birds, mapping the distribution of birds across Australia. I travelled to the outback and became familiar with the calls of inland bird species, which was useful for bird surveys.

It was not until 1986 that I acquired a tiny micro-cassette recorder to record birdsong in outback Australia. Then, in 1990, I upgraded to a full-sized Sony Walkman WMD6C cassette recorder. From these cassettes I collated bird songs for my own learning experience. 

I also looked at dialects of my local superb lyrebirds and wrote up a study of these songs when, eventually, we all had access to sonogram software and home computers.

I joined the WSRS, the UK Wildlife Sound Recording Society, and learnt a lot about equipment and methods to make better quality recordings.

Making sonograms to study birdsong and other wildlife sounds hugely expanded my horizons. I also upgraded my recording gear to DAT (a digital cassette recorder), then to digital recorders that recorded directly to a tiny card. I never did record with reel-to-reel recorders because they were heavy and expensive, and I needed something lightweight to take on backpacking and camping expeditions.

I felt very touched reading how you carefully adapt to the behavior of the birds you’re observing and are sensitive to how much they tolerate you and the gear. How have you come to realize that, at times, you need to change your strategies to prioritize the birds’ safety and well-being? 

I have noticed that currawongs and birds of prey are good at watching humans. If I sit for a long time in one place, watching a nest, those larger birds then target that same nest. Any interference with a nest can cause the birds to abandon it. Conversely, there have been several occasions when I have saved a nest from being predated by a goanna [a carnivorous reptile].

Can you share what other ethical standards you follow in the field, such as restricting the use of playback? 

Australian bird-watching rules state that you should not use playback at all, for example to obtain photos, and especially not in the breeding season. So I prefer to be a passive listener, and try to interpret the natural calls of a bird to know what they are thinking. For example, alarm calls given by small birds when a hawk is flying overhead; harsh calls made when a predator is on the ground, such as a snake or goanna; dawn songs; courting songs and calls; etc.

What are your main tips for people who are just beginning to learn birdsong?

Just learn a few songs at a time. Maybe attach a mnemonic to a bird call, such as those found in bird books, like, “Will-you-come along-with-me to-the sea?” (flame robin). Or I just make up my own, like, “One two buckle-my-shoe” for scarlet honeyeaters. And “EIGHT twenty two” for one of the calls of the pied butcherbird; it does help me remember the call.

Your paper Regent Honeyeaters: Mapping Their Movements Through Song, states that, “Regent Honeyeaters that have been raised in captivity have vocalisations unlike their wild counterparts, and may incorporate some of the sounds they hear from their exotic zoo neighbours.” (M. Shiels, pers. comm.; D. Geering, pers. comm.; Deren 1999; Lay 2002; Cherry and Kelly 2008.)
What do you think about this? What is your understanding of how birds raised in captivity, in a zoo or similar contexts, will (or won’t) thrive once released in the wild?

Taronga Zoo in Sydney now plays recordings of the current song dialects of regent honeyeaters to the captive-bred birds. Field workers are telling me that this has been very successful. 

Do you think, in the words of Carl Safina, “Contact with nonhuman animals can make us better humans”? If so, how?

Definitely! Humans need to understand our place in the natural world. We try to dominate nature at our own peril.

What has been your most remarkable finding when observing and studying birds?

Discovering for myself dialects in birdsong, especially local dialects in superb lyrebirds.

What are some measures you think we should implement globally to foster a caring, respectful connection with the more-than-human world?

Teach our children and grandchildren about nature and encourage their curiosity in all the natural sciences.

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Featured photo: Vicki Powys recording Little Wattlebirds at Brunswick Heads, NSW, 16 July 2016. Courtesy of Vicki Powys.