My personal progress in learning songs has been organic and scattered but
it works for me. I specifically at times go out to track down singing birds
whose songs are unfamiliar. Often I am not successful on the first try in
actually finding the bird making the call, but eventually I learn to
distinguish the song clearly enough that I can source it from the actual
bird. I have been regularly frustrated by bird call tapes in that there is
in some species huge variations in calls and tapes and cds often do not
match even birds I know for sure. Some of the recordings like Peterson are
from the far away places and again the birds calls are different. And then
to add to the puzzle some species have a wide variety of calls they make,
many very unlike the other. So my approach has been to hear a call, track
the caller. Try again until I find it. I still listen to bird cds in my car
sometimes but usually only to confirm what I already heard in the field and
sometimes to sneer at the CD.

However, this might explain why I am not a very good ear birder still,
although general laziness is probably also a factor.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
The Environmental Science School
http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm
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