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I recently received ‘Indian Bird Sounds’ by C. Chappuis, F. Deroussen and D. Warakagoda, a beautiful set of audio CDs containing calls of 370 bird species from the Indian peninsula. A friend had told me about this new product and I thought it would be ‘yet another’ set of bird call CDs.. but the moment I put my hands on it, I knew this one was special!
The well-designed and packaged box contains 5 CDs and a booklet. The booklet is very handy, pocketable and can easily be carried in the field. It is in two languages (English and French) and contains a nice introduction about bird sounds and their usefulness to amateur/serious birders and to ornithologists of course. The booklet is essentially an index that helps in quick search of a particular call/sound (easily identified by a number) and each call name in the booklet is accompanied by text describing where the sound was recorded along with related/additional information about it.
The CDs contain calls of 370 bird species that nest in the Indian peninsula, calls have been recorded in India and some other countries as well. That a tremendous amount of work and detailing has gone into the making of this product, produced in association with the Society of ornithological studies, France and VIStA India, is evident just by looking at the set contents!
The sound files import flawlessly into iTunes music software. They have been very well edited, most about 45 seconds long, some longer than a minute. Transferred to an iPod, they can easily be carried in the field and together with the booklet, can make an amateur or hobby birder like me feel more confident about accurate bird identification.
Besides being of use to amateur/serious birders, the sounds in the CDs are also entertaining! I am sure many bird lovers would love to go through them again and again. They can also be a fantastic travel companion! The calls in my iPod and the booklet in my hand should make some of my journeys less boring!
The box set is priced at Indian Rupees 999, which works out to Rupees 200 (USD 4.50) per CD, a steal in my humble opinion! Moreover, I feel the product is invaluable! Indian Bird Sounds is shipped globally from Hyderabad, India. For information and ordering, please contact Sikha Ghosh emailsikha [at] gmail.com or Anne Chappuis chappuis.anne [at] gmail.com or Luc de Golbéry luc.de-golbery [a] decisiongraphics.fr
Kindly note: I am not affiliated in any way to the producers/promoters of ‘Indian Bird Sounds’ nor am I qualified to write a professional review. I decided to blog about it because I felt it is a wonderful product and more birders should know about it and benefit from it.
