Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central (Peterson Field Guides) Audio CD – Audiobook, April 4, 2002

This is the best CD for bird songs. It teaches you a methodology on how to listen to a birds song or call which will allow you to quickly narrow down which bird you are likely hearing. The CD is so good that you don't need every bird included on this CD. There are plenty of sources to find a birds song if it happens to not be included in this CD. You learn how to listen and methodically select the correct or likely Bird you are hearing, is what this audio offers. It groups similar sounding songs and teaches you how best to analyze them. The groupings are a great idea because you narrow the possible bird ID quickly, based on the tone, pitch and rhythem. A lot of work and thought went into this CD and you will greatly appreciate this clever method to help you learn bird songs. It is not necessary to try and memorize songs and calls. You may find CD's with more birds included, but this one will teach you how to listen to them and put it to use. 5 STARS !!!

This system provides a great way to learn songs. By the end of this CD, I was getting annoyed with the amount of repetition (they sometimes play "easy" songs 4 or more times in a row), and ended up ripping out the individual bird songs for more rapid training. When I started learning some new songs (not on this CD), I decided to dispense with the repetitive CD and just get the bird songs, but found the process MUCH harder. I realized that it is this guide does a FANTASTIC job of pointing out the "hooks" you can use to identify certain songs, and without that help, it's hard for me to learn the hooks by myself.Overall, I wish there was less repetition in the tracks (it isn't really needed because I could just listen to the whole track again), and I wish it covered more birds (there are many reasonably common species not covered, like bald eagle, bluebird, etc). I'm pretty sure there could be a "Volume 2" just on the Eastern birds, but overall, I highly recommend this for someone trying to learn some common songs.Of course this CD can't stand alone: it has only a limited number of songs for each bird, but there is seemingly infinite variation among the songs. You will have to supplement this with other sources if you really want to be able to identify songs in the field, but this CD is a great starting point.

If you are interested in bird watching, bird photography, or just making nature hikes more interesting, then I highly recommend these CDs. I have listened to several bird and wildlife CDs over the years and this set is the best that I have used by a wide margin. The birds are grouped in a fashion that enhances the ability to distinguish similar sounding songs. And, you'll be amazed at how many birds are right in your neighborhood that you have been missing, because for most birds, you hear them before you see them. As examples, I never new that we had Scarlet Tanagers in the woods behind our house before learning their song. The same is true for yellow warblers and several other birds. Once you learn the songs, you'll realize how much you have been missing - probably 3/4 of the colorful birds around you.Like most bird song CDs, they give you the pseudo-English phrases that help you remember the calls (e.g. "who cooks for you" as a memory aid for the Barred Owl). And at the end of the last CD, they replay all the songs, broken down by habitat, without telling you the names. It's a great test to see if you've mastered the songs.One thing to note - tracks on the CDs are groups of birds, not individual birds. For example, one track is woodpeckers, which includes 6 different birds. This makes it easy to skip to the particular group that you are studying/learning, which is nice when you are learning the songs. However, it makes it cumbersome if you are looking for a specific bird song. You can't jump directly to the Pileated Woodpecker song, you have to jump to the Woodpeckers and then skip through the track to find it. Frankly, I use the internet if I'm looking for a specific bird song; that's not what these CDs are for. Or, I just look at the booklet that accompanies these CDs, which is what you will do most often once you learn the songs.I have a few comments regarding a couple of other reviews:- Someone mentioned that they couldn't rip the CDs to put on their MP3 player. I was able to do this - I have all three of these CDs plus the follow-on "More Birding By Ear" CDs all on one WMA CD that I can play in my car while driving (which was the best way to learn for me).- One person complained about the small number of warblers on this set. It took me several months to get to a point where I could identify all of the songs in the test at the end. At that point, I was ready for the second set of CDs in the series ( More Birding by Ear Eastern and Central North America: A Guide to Bird-song Identification (Peterson Field Guide Audios) ). In my opinion, the first set has the right amount to start with. It gives a great sense of accomplishment when you finally master them. I also have the second set, and I don't know that I'll ever learn all of them. Limiting the number on the first set helped motivate me in that I was confident that I could master the entire set (it still took a couple of months).

Document indispensable expédition rapide. Tel que décritTres satisfait

Excellent set of CDs... it really helps you learn all the bird sounds.

as expected

A very good idea to learn or refresh your memory!

Excellent. Very quick shipping. As described.