The birdwatching tips in Tropical Rainforest
Tape Play-back
In Indonesia’s forests, 80% of birds are located by their call, so learning the calls of common or target species will add greatly to your success in seeing them. Tsongs and calls of a selection of Indonesian birds are available on a few commercially produced tape’s on CDs, or on tapes produced privately by birders. Some birders, and especially bird tour leaders, swear by tape-playback as the best technique for being sure of seeing several forest species.
However, there is some debate about the ethics of tape-playback: a recording represents a super-dominant intruder, so repeated playing could disrupt breeding or may even cause the bird to abandon its territory. One incident of play-back will not harm the bird; the problem arises when the same territory holder repeatedly suffers this stress as can happen at popular birding sites.
Tape Play-back
In Indonesia’s forests, 80% of birds are located by their call, so learning the calls of common or target species will add greatly to your success in seeing them. Tsongs and calls of a selection of Indonesian birds are available on a few commercially produced tape’s on CDs, or on tapes produced privately by birders. Some birders, and especially bird tour leaders, swear by tape-playback as the best technique for being sure of seeing several forest species.
However, there is some debate about the ethics of tape-playback: a recording represents a super-dominant intruder, so repeated playing could disrupt breeding or may even cause the bird to abandon its territory. One incident of play-back will not harm the bird; the problem arises when the same territory holder repeatedly suffers this stress as can happen at popular birding sites.
The principle of tape-playback is simple: a recording of the call is played, either to abird heard calling or in likely-looking habitat. The territory-holder thinks there is an intruder and comes out to investigate. A pre-recorded passage is played or, if you do not have a recording or do not know the identity of the calling bird, its call is recorded directly and them played back.
You can choose microphone models below:
1. The Hama Unidirectional Microphone
2. Sennheiser
3. Sony TCM-59V/Sony TCM-77V
4. Sony-500 EV
5. Sony WM-D6C Walkman Professional
6. Marantz CP430
Taken from Birding of Indonesia, Periplus Publishing, Singapore