Perhaps you have shared our frustration of sifting through your sound collection without ever finding the bird you recorded. Although an enormous amount of recordings are available on tape or even CDROM, they usually do not allow you to set up a sensible search strategy, in other words they are not true guides. This is odd, because of the great importance of songs in clinching ID's and in locating species in forests. The classification of birds in field guides is based on shared characteristics and usually leads to a reasonably fast convergence to a species, or genus, even in the tropics. For plants, elaborate decision trees exist that lead you to a certain species(group). For some areas such as Europe completely different decision trees even exist, allowing several independent lines of attack. The idea here is to do something similar for bird sounds. A set of simple characteristics has been chosen: the only instrument needed to determine them is a (stop)watch. More sophisticated and interesting ways of characterising and comparing the sounds exist, and we are planning to develop those here as time progresses, hopefully with your help. What these characteristics will do is limit the number of choices that you have, and more importantly bring together sounds that somehow sound similar, regardless of whether the species producing them are related or not. ... [Information of the supplier]
The diversity of birds opens a window into the living world. The All Birds Barcoding Initiative (ABBI), launched in September 2005, aims to collect standardized genetic data in the form of DNA barcodes from the approximately 10,000 known species of world birds. Despite several hundred years of careful study, genetic surveys including those with DNA barcoding suggest there are hundreds of as yet undescribed avian species. ABBI aims to help speed discovery of new species, provide a practical tool for specimen identification, and open new avenues for scientific investigation. By depositing records in the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) and GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ, ABBI investigators are establishing an open-access electronic library that links DNA barcodes, reference specimens in collections, and associated collection data. The growing avian barcode library will be a valuable resource for conservation planners, ornithologists, ecologists, public health officials, and the interested public. DNA barcoding can be applied by interested persons to confirm identification regardless of age, sex, or plumage, including from individual feathers. This will aid banding and customs operations, for example, and help improve airline safety by identifying feathers and tissue remnants from birdstrikes. ABBI is a testing ground for DNA barcoding, providing benchmarks for the larger initiative to barcode all animal and plant life. ... [Information of the supplier]
Aves 3D is a National Science Foundation funded online database of three-dimensional digital surface models of the various bones that make up the skeleton of birds. Aves 3D aims to provide as wide of a representation of living and extinct bird species as possible, and we are adding new scans to the database on a weekly basis. Scans are generated through non-contact laser surface scanning at the College of the Holy Cross, and onsite at the various institutions whose collections are being scanned for the database, including the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. ... [Information of the supplier]
This web site deals with feathering / plumage of birds, both indigenous to Central Europe and exotic. These are illustrated using colour photographs of specimens from the collections of the author and of other ornithologists. At present, the database comprises 654 illustrations for 281 species. ... [Information of the supplier, translated and modified]
InfoNatura provides conservation status, taxonomic, and distribution information for over 6,000 bird, mammal, and amphibian species in Latin America and the Caribbean. InfoNatura represents a "snapshot" of dynamic data that are continually being refined in NatureServe's central databases. We update InfoNatura one to two times each year to reflect new data from refined geographic surveys, the latest taxonomic treatments, and any new conservation status assessments. Future versions of InfoNatura will include data for additional taxonomic groups such as reptiles. ... [Information of the supplier]
The present database documents the indigenous and non-indigenous freshwater fishes and cyclostomes, crabs and mussels found in the Federal German Republic. The bases are the individual fish registries of the federal states and the German Red List, prepared by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Currently, for 98 endangered fish and cyclostome species countrywide, the Latin, German and English names, species descriptions, population development, lifestyle, and photos are documented together with their references. Some population data are available. In addition 8 crab species are described with their Latin and German names and species description, as well as 7 mussel species with their Latin and German names. The nomenclature is based on the international database FishBase (Kiel). ... [Information of the supplier, translated]
The countrywide Natura 2000 area database offers search possibilities in the Natura 2000 areas in Germany and provides information about their protected resources. Precise area information can be accessed separately for bird protection, and flora and fauna habitat areas (FFH areas) by area number, area size, the occurrence of habitat types and Appendix II species or bird species (Appendix I and migratory-bird species) as well as an area description. The area selection is made through the choice of one or more Federal States. By clicking on the area number you obtain the appropriate area profile. Inside the area profile you obtain a habitat profile by clicking on a habitat code. Input of the whole or part of an area name gives you a further selection possibility on the start page of the bird protection or FFH areas. All statements are taken from the German standard data sheet submitted to the EU. ... [Information of the supplier, translated]
AquaMaps are computer-generated predictions of natural occurrence of marine species, based on the environmental tolerance of a given species with respect to depth, salinity, temperature, primary productivity, and its association with sea ice or coastal areas. These 'environmental envelopes' are matched against an authority file which contains respective information for the Oceans of the World. Independent knowledge such as distribution by FAO areas or bounding boxes are used to avoid mapping species in areas that contain suitable habitat, but are not occupied by the species. Maps show the color-coded likelihood of a species to occur in a half-degree cell, with about 50 km side length near the equator. Experts are able to review, modify and approve maps. ... [Information of the supplier]
The Animal Sound Archive (Tierstimmenarchiv) of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is an unique scientific collection. It has a large potential for scientific and educational purposes.The Animal Sound Archive of the Humboldt-University is one of the oldest and largest collections of animal sounds. Presently, the collection consists of about 110,000 bioacoustical recordings comprising almost all groups of animals: 1.800 bird species, 580 mammalian species, more then150 species of invertebrates, some fishes, amphibians and reptiles. ... [Information of the supplier]
The Macaulay Library is the world's largest archive of animal sounds.We have more than 160,000 recordings of 67 percent of the world's birds, and rapidly increasing holdings of insects, fish, frogs, and mammals. The Macaulay Library is a principal source of sound recordings for basic research, education, conservation, habitat assessment, media, and commercial projects. The collection is strongest in New World species but also has substantial holdings from Africa and Madagascar, Europe, the former Soviet Union, and South East Asia. The Library archives and preserves an exhaustive sampling of the behaviors of each animal species using digital video and audio recordings. ... [Information of the supplier]
