Birdsong and Field Guides:
Intersections of Sound and Print
The earliest guides to birds focused on identifying them by their appearance. While their distinctive calls and songs were sometimes described in the text, the lack of sound recording technology meant the ability to distinguish bird species by sound was limited. Some of the most famous earlier guides to birds, such as those by Bewick or Audubon, are notable primarily for their fine illustrations.
But beginning in the 1930s, field guides were sold with record albums that allowed people to learn to identify birds by their songs as well as by physical characteristics. Debates within ornithology erupted as to the best way to represent a species’ song. Should the recording use short clips of different sounds, or a longer, representative clip of a bird’s song? Cornell ornithologists were at the fore both in the collection and use of sound recordings in birding, and in the debate as to how people should learn to listen to birds.
This case displays several published examples of records created using Cornell-collected birdsong, and narrated by Cornell faculty such as Paul Kellogg and Arthur Allen, who had traveled the country collecting the samples. Also shown is a marked up manuscript used by Allen in narrating one such album. Note the handwritten times of various birdsong clips, and the changes made in the course of recording the album.
While the addition of sound to written descriptions marked a major advance in the study of ornithology, the size of records and the necessary playback equipment meant birders were unlikely to take these guides into the field themselves. That level of portability and individualization would emerge with future developments in sound technology.