Listening to a Continent Sing

the companion website to the book by Donald Kroodsma

search recordings by number

Listen by number, as referenced in the book’s text; state abbreviations are added as a prefix. Simply click on any of the 381 numbers, such as CO-280, where you’ll be whisked away to Colorado, listening to yellow-headed blackbirds.

search recordings by species

From the Atlantic to the Pacific, choose any particular species that you’d like to listen to. Each listening opportunity is coded by state (VA for Virginia to OR for Oregon), and by the recording number as referenced in the text of the book Listening to a Continent Sing, Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific. (Numbers in parentheses refer to recordings in which the species can be heard in the background; e.g., the Canada goose can be plainly heard in the background of the rock wren in WY-274).

search recordings by state

Sweep the continent on the TransAm bicycle route from Virginia to Oregon, through ten states, and pick where you want to listen. You can start on the Atlantic in Historical, coastal Virginia and head west all the way to the Pacific Coast in Oregon.

Here’s a quick index of your listening locations:

listen to the dawn chorus

Surf the wave of dawn’s first light and birdsong across the continent, listening to how birds greet each new day. I offer two ways that you might want to explore the dawn chorus.

You can use the Quick index by state to immerse yourself in the dawn chorus in any state of your choice, from Virginia to Oregon. Or try the Index by species. Listen to how eastern species pass the torch to their western cousins. Check out the tanagers, or Empidonax flycatchers, or warblers, for example.

Quick index by state

Quick index by species