Combining anecdote, scientific theory and practical field experience, The Sound Approach to Birding is a step-by-step guide through tone, pitch, rhythm, reading sonograms, acoustics and using sound to sex and age birds.
It explains how bird sounds are often the first indication of previously unrecognised taxonomic splits, and explains how to identify them.
The book comes with 2 CDs with over 200 stereo bird song samples from all over the world.
"[...] There are plenty of commercially available recordings to help birders learn bird sounds. But there really haven’t been any tools available to improve your birding by ear skills. Until now, that is. This book is a no-brainer, must-buy for European birders. While the examples are less relevant to everyone else, the concepts are not. It is very much recommended to anyone anywhere who wants to increase their auditory expertise."
- Grant McCreary (25-08-2007), read the full review at The Birder's Library
"This book is an inspiration, the recordings are wonderful, the text educational and fun to read. I cannot recommend it too highly. BUY it and buy it now!"
– Brian Small, surfbirds.com
"The book is a terrific read and deserves to be bought by any birders who want to take their sound identification a whole leap further forward. I can't remember the last time I was so impressed, entertained and enlightened by a birding product. Birders everywhere should get this."
– Dave Gosney, birdguides.com
"This book fills a hole in the literature for Western Palearctic birders [...] unless you are very confident about your abilities and expertise with bird song, you probably need to read, and interact with, this book"
– Martin Collinson, British Birds, November 2006.
"This really is ground breaking and should be in everyone's library even if they clear off every other book but for their Collins Fieldguide as I am sure it does more to explain bird song and help birders get to grips with it than any other publication has ever done before"
– Fatbirder review, August 2007