• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Search results

thxpress_search_the_forum Search Opus
  1. J

    Small (But Good?) Part 6

    Being a techno junky, I finally succumbed and bought the Dodotronics Hi Sound Compact parabola. The idea is to have a highly portable bit of kit, but with more ‘range’ than the MKE400 and Tentacle Track E, which is my ‘carry everywhere’ solution. First problem is that the High Sound Compact...
  2. J

    All Nocmig questions answered?

    Just saw the following title on a website ‘Identifying Migratory Birds by Sound in Britain and Europe’ Series: Helm Identification Guide Series To be published in June 2024. The book apparently covers 450 species, and I will be keeping an eye out for it, as it could be an invaluable guide for...
  3. J

    Prion ID

    In December I was on the Heritage Expedition trip to the Subantarctic Islands. We saw Broad-billed, Antarctic, Fulmar and Fairy Prions, but when searching though my wife's photos, I have found a few birds that really puzzle me. Firstly there are at least three birds that do not look that...
  4. J

    Recording Gear Wish List

    Based on another thread on optics, as a bit of fun, I thought I would ask what is your ‘dreamed of’ piece of recording equipment? It seems to me that we are generally using a lot of kit, that is designed for another purpose than wildlife recording - e.g. my holiday kit is now really a recorder...
  5. J

    Use of Lavalier PiP Mics and Question on power requirements

    I am thinking of trying to use a lavalier mic with a small recorder and battery pack to get close recordings of singing birds this spring. I am thinking of purchasing a CLIPPY EM272 mono microphone, as this has better sensitivity and S/N ratio than most other lavalier mics I own (which came...
  6. J

    Large 'White-headed' Gull - Henan China

    A friend in Henan China has just photographed this gull, and would like assistance with the ID. My view is that it is probably a 'Heuglin's' Gull, due to inner primary pattern, suspended moult, head pattern and general jizz. My friend was wondering about Slaty-backed, but it doesn't seem right...
  7. J

    Birding Asia Taxonomy

    Just received Birding Asia Number 39 June 2023, which includes their Taxonomic Update. The interesting points include the following New Species 'Six years after the expedition that discovered and documented them (see Eaton et al. 2016a), Irtham et al. (2022) describe two birds species new to...
  8. J

    Rode Wireless Pro

    Has anyone tried the new Rode Wireless Pro for bird sounds, and if so how does it perform? I am thinking here of close mic work (either setting up at a known song post, or suck it and see recordings - place and hope!). Obviously the system wouldn’t be great for hand carrying and would be pretty...
  9. J

    Has the WGAC published a list?

    Just looking at Avibase and in (some?) species drop down's they have 'Working Group of Avian Checklists, version 0.01, v.0' and '... version 0.02, v.0' Has WGAC published anything yet (apart from the update on their website), or does the administrator of Avibase have an inside track to work in...
  10. J

    What is a species?

    This is probably an old question, but as I am not a trained taxonomist, I was wondering if the definition of a species is universally defined and used by professional taxonomists? Looking at the latest IOC update, they state that species are added of deleted based on differences in morphology...
  11. J

    Buying Telinga Kit in The UK

    Just a quick note to say that although the Telinga website states that 'For Telinga Modular and accessories please contact Pink Noise U.K for Telinga PRO-X and accessories please contact NHBS', from my experience (at least) Pinknoise Systems are able to provide a wider range of Telinga...
  12. J

    IOC 13.1 Updates point towards convergence.

    Just worked through the IOC 13.1 updates and compared to 12.2 there are 198 changes to taxa - these changes are either newly recognised species or subspecies, subspecies reassignments (lumps/splits) or changes to the spelling of Latin genus or given names. Interestingly, I has always thought...
  13. J

    R5 8k video

    Although the R5 overheats easily when taking 8k video, and 8k gobbles up memory, has anyone experience of using 8k as a means to improve the apparent magnification of a lens by cropping from 8K to 4K or 1K? I am in particular thinking this could work well for birds in flight, where it would be...
  14. J

    Messy Taxonomy

    IOC, Clements and BirdLife Taxonomies vary but in general taxa can be mapped between lists - one authorities subspecies is generally another authorities species. However, there are a limited number of occasions where mapping is not possible - a species in one list is not recognised as a valid...
  15. J

    Convergence of IOC, Clements and BirdLife Taxonomies?

    It is old news that IOC, Clements and BirdLife are all participating in a unified checklist, but there seems to be some evidence that this work is spilling over into the maintenance and update of these three taxonomies. I have been working on a database, and trying to map the IOC, Clements and...
  16. J

    APC 42 Stabilised for Pelagic Trips and Sea Watching?

    I have been toying with the idea of getting a pair of stabilised binoculars for a big pelagic trip next year. Does anyone have experience of the using the 12 or 16x Kite binoculars on medium and smaller sized vessel (say 20 to 150 passengers)? If so are these binoculars any good? Last time I...
  17. J

    Do theories regarding the mechanisms for Vagrancy stand scrutiny, and what does vagrancy tell us about migration?

    I have been reading 'Vagrancy in Birds' and the sections on how birds navigate is very interesting and informative. I find however, the theories on compass errors, reverse migration, mirror-migration, and drift, as mechanisms for vagrancy not totally convincing. Of course I am not discarding...
  18. J

    Warning on keeping Digital Sound Recordings and Backup

    Probably obvious to everyone (except me!), but I have learnt the hard way not to use a dual slot HDD caddy to house the source and backup for my sound files. I had a caddy for several years that I used in this manner, then recently the device suddenly corrupted the allocation tables on both...
  19. J

    Small (But Good?) Part 5

    Well not that small, but I have finally tried rigging up the Zoom F3 to my Telinga parabolic mic. I used the Telinga tripod mount to attach a cheese plate then cable tied the recorder to the cheese plate with a foam pad sandwiched between the recorder and the plate (see photo below). Thoughts...
  20. J

    Texas - Not a Trip Report - Think twice before hiring a car on a birding trip, if you want to drive on unpaved roads.

    Probably posting in the wrong place, as this is not a trip report, but thought I would share a recent experience from Texas. I recently spent 3.5 weeks in Texas and rented a car from Sixt. As we wanted to do some primitive camping at Big Bend Ranch and Big Bend, I opted for a high clearance...
  21. J

    Small (But Good?) Part 4

    Now for the really tiny - The Instamic Pro 32 Bit Recorder (Instamic Pro Plus). I read on Xeno Canto that some people use lavalier (lapel) mics to get the best recordings of birds up close, where teh bird is singing from a known song post. When I saw this 32bit-float wearable recorder which is...
  22. J

    Small (But Good?) Part 3

    Getting a bit smaller, there is the Wildlife Acoustics SM Micro Song Meter Micro Wildlife Recorder. The use is basically the same as the Mini, but you cannot attach a second mic so there is no option to create a safety channel. The attached recording of a Painted Bunting was again speculative...
  23. J

    Small (But Good?) Part 2

    As part of my kit I have a Wildlife Acoustics SM Mini. Song Meter Mini Wildlife Audio Recorder. This is only a 16 bit recorder, so there can be problems with clipping, but it is small so can easily be taken on birding trips. The mic ( I have attached a second, which can be set to different gain...
  24. J

    Small (but Good?) Part 1

    For some time I have been toying with ideas for compact sound recording equipment, which would be more convenient while travelling on holidays. I have just returned from Texas where I tested some options, the first of which is a compact 32 bit float recorder with a videomic. After doing a bit...
  25. J

    SoundDevices NoiseAssist

    Probably a bit of a remote chance, but has anyone with a Sound Devices MixPre recorder purchased and used the noise assist plugin? The bumf of SoundDevices website, states that the plugin monitors background noise such as traffic, HVAC etc, and then reduces this noise. As I live in an area...
Back
Top