It’s April and that means breeding has started or will start very soon for many species in most parts of India. What better time to focus on recording the calls and songs that are all around us at this time of year! This month, the challenge focusses on both birding effort as well as sound recordings. In this way, let’s collectively build up a repository of Indian bird sounds, adding to the 11,000+ recordings already uploaded to the eBird/Macaulay from the country.
The challenge this month is to upload a minimum of 30 effort-based, complete checklists of at least 15 minutes duration. All birders meeting this target will be recognised, and from among their lists, one list containing one or more audio recordings will be drawn at random to choose who receives a small gift in appreciation. The more the number of lists with sound recordings, the greater the chances of winning!
Do look through this guide to uploading media on eBird to understand the general process. You can upload either images or audio, but for this challenge, it is audio in particular that we are looking for. Do keep in mind the following points:
a. The recording uploaded must be from the time and location of the particular birdlist.
b. The recording must be directly uploaded to eBird, not embedded from third party sites.
c. The recording should be of sufficient quality so that the species in question is identifiable.
d. Please follow the best practices for audio upload when recording and post-processing.
If you do not have audio recording equipment, that’s OK! Today’s smartphones can be very good for recording audio. Alternatively, you can record video on your camera and then separate the audio out (here’s how). So do give it a try!
Please upload all your lists by 15 May 2019 so that we can announce the results soon after.
Here are the general rules of our monthly challenges. And check out the yearlong challenges as well! You can keep track of fresh lists coming in from India at this page. Important. if you are new to eBird, please read this description first, and do take a look at our quick-start infographic and also the more comprehensive Beginner’s Guide.
Header: Black-and-orange Flycatcher, by Bopanna Pattada/Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab, from this list.
