Washtenaw Bird & Nature Alliance | Visualizing Bird Song: Ram Ramamurthy @ AADL

Washtenaw Bird & Nature Alliance | Visualizing Bird Song: Ram Ramamurthy @ AADL

Wednesday September 17, 2025: 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Downtown Library: 1st Floor Lobby

A 2022 survey shows that 96 million of us enjoy watching birds, either in our backyard, at a local park or on a trail. Birds are everywhere, and watching birds gives a workout to our body and mind. Birding connects us to the environment, gives us an opportunity to sharpen our identification skills, and this enhances our mental wellbeing. Humans are fascinated with the diverse colors, the mystery of long-haul flights, and wide variations in bird song.

This talk specifically focuses on the use of technology to visualize bird songs and calls. It is akin to translating what we hear into a version of “sheet music”. This talk will be an introduction to the area of Bioacoustics, the science of studying bird vocalizations. We will learn why birds sing, how birds sing, types of bird vocalizations, and birds’ ability to learn vocalizations. We will show how our recordings with smartphones can be transformed into “sheet music”!

Washtenaw Bird and Nature Alliance holds monthly meetings featuring entertaining and informative speakers. The program kicks off with announcements of recent bird sightings and upcoming events. Past speaker topics have included: the impact of climate change on bird populations, birding around the world, butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, endangered species, bird banding, nature photography, and Great Lakes issues with emphasis on birds. Meetings are free and open to the public – you do not need to be a member to attend a meeting.

AADL posting