Customer Reviews:
 audio bird songs CD July 16, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The CD of bird songs is compatible with the Michigan Birds and can assist in helping identify the most common songs & calls of Michigan.
I was a little disappointed that more calls/songs were not on the CD. I was hoping to use the CD to assist in Identifying a few birds that have not been spotted in the upper canopy of northern Michigans swamp/river areas but can be heard singing at dusk in the tree tops.
Overall, the book & CD are useful and I would recommend them to anyone wanting to put a "name" with a voice.
The Brown Thrasher has over a thousand songs April 15, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This two-CD set is designed as a companion to the book, "Birds of Michigan Field Guide". The calls are in the same order as in the book, which might cause a bit of confusion to listeners who do not own the book, since the birds are arranged by color. For instance, the first birds on the first CD are the Eastern Towhee, Brown-headed Cowbird, European Starling, Red-winged Blackbird, and American Coot, because they are all primarily black in color.
CD bird song guides such as the Peterson Field Guides group bird songs by type of song, e.g. sing-songers, whistlers, or mimics, or else by related species such as woodpeckers or owls. This categorization scheme makes it easier to locate a particular birdsong---at least for me.
Stan Tekiela's classification scheme by color makes perfect sense for his book, but is a bit confusing for the CDs, especially if you can hear the unknown bird but have not yet sighted it.
Another minor complaint is that not all Michigan birds are represented on these CDs. Among the missing are the Vireos (Red-eyed and Yellow-throated), swamp sparrow, and Michigan's most common thrushes (Wood Thrush, Veery, Hermit Thrush). And where are the name-sayers such as the Whip-poor-will, Chuck-will's-widow, or the Eastern Wood-Pewee?
However, for the birds included on the CD, there are more songs, calls, and variations per species than on, say, the Peterson Field Guides--perhaps not all thousand songs of the Brown Thrasher, but enough so that you won't be fooled by the Chickadee's 'spring time' song.
Mnemonics are freely supplied for learning purposes, e.g. "Cherry Cherry Cherry" for the song of the Carolina Wren. The narrator also tells us where and when calls and songs can be heard.
The booklet that comes with the CDs discusses how birds make sounds, and what kind of sounds they make. The index to the CD tracks includes a small photo of the performing bird, and a reference to the page of the Field Guide where this particular bird appears.
Altogether "Birds of Michigan Audio CDs" is a very useful audio guide that I would recommend using in conjunction with Peterson's "Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central" CDs. You should also splurge for a copy of Tekiela's "Birds of Michigan Field Guide."
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