Back in October, I started playing around with Larkwire, an online birdsong app that makes learning bird songs and bird calls almost easy...
The Larkwire app homepage...
You can learn to bird by ear playing this game!
Larkwire is an interactive Web game. Since October, I've played it on my computer, my iPhone, and my iPad (I love it on my iPad). As long as you have an Internet connection you can play...and when you play, you really will learn bird songs and calls!
I don't learn as quickly as I used to (boo!), but Larkwire seems to have overriden that tendency (yeah!) because I am learning songs I used to have trouble remembering. Maybe it's because Larkwire's founder, Phil Mitchell, has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and has developed a learning engine that uses "spaced repetition" to help us learn faster and retain more. I don't know how many times I've driven around with a bird song CD playing in the car (Matty and Rick just love that...) trying to learn bird songs (but not having much luck), but with Larkwire, I seem to learn the songs in a different way. It's more like being out in the field...
Click here to try it for free. No signup is required, so try it out!
Larkwire is affordable, and at least 10% of every purchase is donated to a conservation organization. There are several levels of songpacks you can buy. The "Birder Core" songpack includes the essential land birds and is only $8.95. I bought the the next level up, the "Birder Pro" song pack for the Eastern/Central region, and it was only $16.95 (it covers 233 species; the Western region covers 299 species). Click here for complete pricing and all the available songpacks.
...so get ready for spring migration by learning those warbler songs now...in the dead of winter...by playing a game!
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