Awesome resource for learning the songs and calls of Colorado's birds

[Ted Floyd]

Hey, everybody.

I think most of us know about Xeno-Canto, but did you know that the site now hosts 2,096 recordings from Colorado? The species total for the state is an impressive 283, including pretty much all the routinely occurring birds in Colorado. 

The filter and search functions on Xeno-Canto are brilliant, and it's straightforward to create a database of only the recordings from Colorado. Here ya go:

http://tinyurl.com/Xeno-Canto-Colorado

(Note to folks who might have seen a prototype of this at Facebook: I've cleaned this up so that only recordings from the actual state of Colorado, USA, are included. You don't have to worry anymore about motmots and toucans from Barro Colorado Island, Panama, etc.)

The link above is sorted by species in "checklist sequence," but you can sort by location, elevation, recordist, quality of recording, and other parameters. Lots of folks have contributed to the Xeno-Canto database for Colorado, with the most prolific recordists being Andrew Spencer, Nathan Pieplow, Sue Riffe, Eric DeFonso, Nick Komar, and Yours Truly.

It's almost February, which means birds will be getting more and more vocal every day. This morning, for example, I heard a Northern Flicker singing at Waneka Lake, Boulder County, my first singing flicker of the year. But it's also still January, so there's still time for a New Years resolution! Resolve to learn birdsong this year, and make good use of Xeno-Canto as you do so.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County

[mvjo...@gmail.com]

Very good info Ted. Thanks....