Bird Song Ear Training Guide: Who Cooks for Poor Sam Peabody? Learn to Recognize the Songs of Birds from the Midwest and Northeast States

Each bird song recording is followed by a short description of the sound along with a common mnemonic used to remember it. Many well-known song mnemonics such as "Who cooks for you?" for the Barred Owl and "Poor Sam Peabody" for the White-throated Sparrow are included. Following the song and mnemonic, the source of the sound is revealed. By naming the bird at the end of each track, the listener is allowed to wonder and guess at the nature of the sound. Active listening, similar to what one experiences in the field while searching for an unknown bird song, is a key to engaging the memory process.

One way to use this CD is to enable the "Random Play" or "Shuffle" option on a home CD player, portable stereo, or personal computer. Although it may be frustrating at first, repetition of this "quiz" game will quickly improve recognition skills. Gaining familiarity with these songs will greatly increase any bird watcher's enjoyment and awareness of birds in their natural habitat.

Features:

- 189 bird species found in the Midwest and Northeast states
- Digital bird song recordings made in Wisconsin
- Brief narration after each song includes descriptive, memorable and often funny mnemonics
- Can be used as a field guide to learn and identify songs or as a recognition quiz game
- Easy to use alphabetical track listing of all birds and their mnemonics
- It is a great gift for any birdwatcher, beginner or advanced.
- Total running time: 60 minutes

For some, the main draw of this CD is that one is allowed to guess before being told the name of the bird singing. Others might like the number of memorable mnemonics and brief song descriptions used. For those in the Midwest, the main draw might be that all the birds were recorded in Wisconsin (although most of the birds can be heard over much of the Eastern United States). And finally, the fact that one can review or "take a quiz" on the songs of 189 birds in only 60 minutes is a big advantage over the multi-CD guides.

This is, of course, only the opinion of the unbiased author.


A unique and impressive CD audiobook   March 4, 2003
 54 out of 54 found this review helpful

John Feith's Bird Song Ear Training Guide is a unique and impressive CD audiobook providing instructions on how to recognize songs of birds common to the states of the Midwest and Northeast (including Wisconsin where almost all the bird songs were recorded and the post-production work was done). Each distinctive bird song is followed by a mnemonic or a short description. The bird is identified and a review sound is played again that fixes the song's identity in the mind of the listener. The Bird Song Ear Training Guide is enhanced with a quiz format which will aid the listener to focus on learning how to identify the bird songs. A complete list of bird species and mnemonics is included in an insert. All profits from this enthusiastically recommended CD instructional for birdwatchers will go to the Nature Conservancy and the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology.


excellent learning disk for new birders   May 28, 2003
 20 out of 20 found this review helpful

Our family has owned a patch of shore/forest land in Wisconsin for 20 years although none have been birders. With this disk we easily learned to identify species and discovered the diversity that we never noticed previously. The call/naming/call format of this disk is excellent for new birders and the numbers of species covered is ideal. I use the Stokes disk set as a reference but the name/call format and large number species covered does not facilitate learning the calls.


Learning is easy with John's cd!!   February 11, 2005
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

I was always good at idenfitying birds by site but not by call and thanks to John's cd I am now good at both. I listen to it all of the time and would be lost without it. It is very informative and clever. I would suggest this cd over any other bird call cd! Thanks John for this great learning tool!! My cat loves it too.


Jayne Gulbrand



Format matters   October 28, 2005
 17 out of 17 found this review helpful

I own several other audio programs for bird song, but none compare to John Feith's training guide. Birds have up to 200 songs. Many have five to ten. Most audio recordings try to give them all to you, and leave you baffled. Mr. Feith chooses the most distiguishable song. The intro of song then identification truly sharpens your identification skills, then after the identification one more clear song or call is played. Excellent format! I would recommend this audio and none other.