The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong [With CD]

by Donald E. Kroodsma

Book Overview

Listen to birds sing as you've never listened before, as the world-renowned birdsong expert Donald Kroodsma takes you on personal journeys of discovery and intrigue. Read stories of wrens and robins,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618405682
• ISBN13: 9780618405688
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 482 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Wow - my ears are opened!

I just got a book out of the library. The author is a nut about recording songs and analyzing the sonograms (frequency intensity over time), and in his mind, when he hears a song, he identifies it by how it "looks" in his mental sonogram. This whole idea is amazing, and I think I'll never listen to birds the same way again - just after reading the first few pages! The writing style pulls you into the author's world as he tracks birds and ponders the meaning of their song. If you love birding, you will wish you had been there on every walk, and you'll want to wake up two hours before dawn the next day to discover the amazingly different pre-dawn songs of common birds. The book comes with as CD with 98 tracks of songs, and some of the tracks are slowed down, which really changes your perception and shows you the depth and richness of some of those "blurt" sounds birds make. The Woodthrush at 1/10 speed reminds me of a howling wolf. I know I'll never listed to this song the same way again!

A Superb Masterpiece

I found myself in complete agreement with the preceding 5-star reviews by Laura Allender, John Matlock and Laura L. Erickson. I only wish there was a way to rank the book higher than 5-stars. Reading the book took me on a journey into an amazing, beautiful, and complex world that I previously had no idea existed. I kept finding myself saying "wow!" at the wonderful and startling discovers I came across. I especially liked the fact that the author is completely honest about what he doesn't know, explaining the many mysteries about bird singing that still remain to be solved. Rarely does one see the humanities so beautifully merged with science. The book is one of the best I have ever read, barring none. My only regret is that there is as yet no edition of this book that uses color images of the birds and sonograms (the stunning cover jacket is in color). I would be willing to pay a little extra for such a version of this fantastic book.

Suberb--a lovely merging of science and poetry

I was predisposed to like this book, since I love birdsong and have long been drawn to research about it. But this book far exceeded my high expectations. Don Kroodsma takes us through the entire process of listening to a song, thinking up questions about how the species acquired it, and step by step through the process of learning the answer, setting up the sections like little mysteries. He's recognized by the American Ornithologists' Union as an authority on acquisition of birdsong, and although the book is authoritative and scientific, he somehow manages to infuse every paragraph with his own sense of wonder and joy in his subject. This book may look like a textbook, but it reads like a cross between a mystery novel and lovely poetry. I can't recommend it highly enough.

A masterpiece of Avian Bioacoustics.

A masterpiece of avian bioacoustics (Sorry, I just had to use those words). I have a bird outside my window just now singing a song of some kind. I've long thought it was pretty, but thought no more acout it. Now this book has come along and my casual listening has become much more interesting. I found the bird outside my window in the book and sure enough here is a sonogram, a voice print if you will of what the bird sounds like. Further, there is a track on the CD that comes with the book that has this bird's song recorded. It's not exactly like the bird outside the window, but birds (I've learned) are individuals too. Birding is one of the more popular pastimes in this country, and growing quire rapidly. This book would be a supurb gift to any birder, even if you have to give it to yourself.

The CD alone is worth the money!

Just listened to an interview with the author on NPR which included a number of selections from the accompanying CD, all I can think of is 'how awesome!' The author has spent many years studying and documenting birdsong and makes me realize that what I thought I knew from growing up in the country surrounded by birdsong is a tiny fragment of what I actually was hearing. The CD includes birdsongs at normal speeds and slowed to 1/2 and 1/4 speed, which allows the listener to hear the discreet sounds. The accompanying text includes graphic description of the sounds for a clearer understanding. If you love birds, you will love this!