Song Sleuth is the popular and powerful birding-by-ear learning tool and bird song identifier app, which is available for Android and Apple smart devices. Developed by Wildlife Acoustics in collaboration with renowned birder and illustrator David Sibley, Song Sleuth is a simple to use application that provides details and auditory learning tools to help birders of all levels identify birds by ear in the field or study them at home, or anywhere.

“Song Sleuth is one of many tools that can help identify a bird, but its true benefit is helping people become better birders by familiarizing them with known birdsongs in a logical, familiar way,” explained David Sibley recently.

The app features detailed information and recordings for more than 200 North American birds and helps to guide users to identify birds in the field by their songs. 

To identify a bird’s song in the field, users only need to only push the record button in “Record and ID” mode. The app begins recording a few seconds prior to initial recording and a visual representation of the frequencies and timing of the bird’s song are depicted in a real-time spectrogram on the screen.

By tapping the record button again, a song isolation screen helps users hone in on the species and reveals the three most probable birds in the “Likely Matches” screen. There, users have many options to help them make the final identification of the singing bird including playing example recordings of the likely matches, comparing spectrograms of the example recordings with the user’s recording side-by-side, or accessing The David Sibley Bird Reference.

The David Sibley Bird Reference includes beautiful illustrations created especially for the app by Sibley that can be zoomed in to study the bird’s features. The reference also includes zoom-able range maps and an information page with species description, identification cues and vocalization tips, as well as pre-loaded sample recordings.

Each recording is saved in the “Recording List” area where users can revisit and study their recordings, add custom notes, download the audio files or share recordings with fellow birders via email or text messaging. Additionally, each recording is geotagged and can be viewed on a map in the “GPS View.” And that’s the tip of the iceberg of the useful features of Song Sleuth.

For more information, see (www.songsleuth.com). Song Sleuth is available for just $10 on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wildlifeacoustics.SongSleuth