Today I recorded a Yellow-bellied Prinia Prinia flaviventris
calling in the Typha reedbeds at Okhla Bird Sanctuary in New
Delhi. The bird was very close to me—though I could not see it in
the overgrown reeds—and one can hear its wing-snapping display in
the recording. The incessant drone of Cicadas provides a backdrop.
Here's
an MP3 file
(which I created using
Audacity), and here's an
old photo of the species, also from Okhla.
(There are much better
photographs on OBI.)
This is the first time I have used my new
Olympus LS-11
recorder, and I am very impressed with the sound quality I obtained,
given my complete inexperience at nature sound recording. I used the
default 44.1KHz/16-bit settings, with the "low" mic sensitivity setting,
and a recording level of 10.
I am delighted to have been able to record one of my favourite singers
as my first subject. I've always tried and failed to describe the call
to people, but now I can let the bird speak for itself.