What a really excellent site the xeno-canto website is. For someone like myself who really enjoys listening to and learning about bird vocalisations I am really glad that this site has been pointed out on the forum.

Cheers,

Bill.

A couple of websites highlighted in Birdwatch this month, with the text quoted direct from the magazine (Issue 213 March 2010):

Canada & Cackling Geese - http://tinyurl.com/ydauogw

This weblink will also take you to the Sibley North American Bird Guides Website, which makes interesting reading for all manner of North American Birds, whether your interest is for identification of those vagrants making it to these shores or visiting over towards the other side of the Atlantic!

"The tricky problem of identifying the vairous forms of Canade Geese and Cackling Geese is not easy for North American birders, and it can be even more difficult for anyone trying to add them to their British Lists.
David Siblewy, author of several acclaimed identification guides to North American Birds, has published his thoughts online, which will help British birders to pick out the occasional individual that makes it over here, often with wild geese of other species"



World Birds - www.worldbirds.org

Again, directly quoted from the Birdwatch text below, a somewhat complex looking website, but once you start playing about it all becomes clear, and hopefully useful.

"This global birding website is for uploading sightings from around the world, as well as for searching for information, and new data has been added for North Africa. One very useful feature is the ability to download or print checklists with full databases for each North African ountry. Simply create a login, click 'Species checklist', then click 'Country checklist'. Then select either the 'Print' or 'Download' button.

I've got lots of very useful calls downloaded in MP3 format straight to my mobile from xeno-canto

I appreciate that we all hold The Manchester Bird Forum website very close to our hearts and what is on it, within it and shared between those who use it is fantastic. However, without wanting to upset the administrator, whom I am very thankful to, I thought I'd start a new thread (althuogh I stand corrected if there is one prior to this) on other birding websites. To start with I'd like to let you know of one I just came across from reading the current edition of British Birds (Feb 2010): http://www.xeno-canto.org As it states in BB it is a website where you can listen to the calls and songs of 6,300 species of birds from across the globe, with 40,000 recordings. Some may not be of the quality of the CDs and DVDs you can buy in the shops or online, but if you are heading somwhere new, want to check on something you've heard or are just curious as to what certain species sound like then this is a cracker. It has allowed me to venture back in my mind to times in Australian Bush and the African savanna!?! on listening to some of the birds I picked over the years. I appreciate that some magazines and books give you bird website addresses to visit, but most people don't buy all the mags available and there must be many a gem of a website, like this very one, that people must know about and could share with us all. I await with intrepidation for the sites out there that you know of.....................................