How to record audio in windy conditions

[Nathan Pieplow]

Hi everybody,

In recent days I've seen several examples of a classic Colorado birding problem: people try to record audio of a bird, but there's simply too much wind, and the recording ends up being unusable, or nearly so.

If you find yourself in this situation, I recommend that you start up Merlin and then put your phone in your pocket. The fabric then acts as a makeshift windscreen. It usually doesn't dramatically affect the levels from the bird sound, but it can greatly cut down on wind noise. 

In a few weeks, we will all have the ability to send recordings from Merlin directly to eBird on our phones. This will also come with the ability to trim recordings in Merlin. If you do the phone-in-the-pocket trick, it will be important to trim away the not-in-pocket parts of the recording to ensure the best levels on the resulting online audio.

While I'm at it, I'll exhort everyone to please keep your recorder running longer than you might be tempted to. I've been asked to identify a bunch of ten-second and twenty-second recordings of Warbling Vireos recently, and it's not always possible. The longer your recordings, the better, especially for things like Warbling Vireos or any kind of rarity. Longer recordings are easier to ID and can be used in a wider variety of scientific research. 

Thanks, and good birding!

Nathan Pieplow

Boulder

[Mary Keithler]

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the timely recording tips and the heads up on the Merlin updates we can look forward to.  Sounds very handy. 

Mary 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 13, 2026, at 4:11 PM, Nathan Pieplow <npie...@gmail.com> wrote:



--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To post to this group, send email to cob...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds
* All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate.
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAFhaDVKawg2w0cHMSgzYDO%3DJ1sLo_%2BiwstFmfsrQ9muyMPaeDg%40mail.gmail.com.

[william kossack]

I use a good shotgun microphone and a digital recorder.  However,  years ago i birded with randy Little in new jersey.  Randy did all the original sound recordings for the Peterson field guides using a large parabolic dish microphone 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/BA322FE2-F4A7-4FBD-9710-FC3EDF902DD9%40gmail.com.