BIRD CALLS REPOSITORY

A growing online library of bird sounds, photos and information offers a new resource for backyard birders and seasoned ornithologists alike. MSU’s Avian Vocalizations Center, or AVoCet, offers free downloads of bird sounds from around the world. It also features sonograms that visually chart the sounds, photos of birds recorded, Google Earth maps of recording locations and links to other online sound collections.

More than 10,200 recordings from over 3,190 species in 45 countries are now available on AVoCet, “and that’s growing quickly,” says Pamela Rasmussen (photo), an assistant professor of zoology and assistant curator at the MSU Museum. “Soon recordings and their data from many more species and areas will be available for download from AVoCet.”