Nowadays, there are many different types of Bird chirping sounds available in the market. Some are expensive, some are cheap and some maybe free where you could download from the Internet.
A good Bird chirping sound and expensive one would cost more than thousand and often it is hard to get. If you used the right CD sound, the returns generated from nest harvesting is many times more than the money invested on the right and good CD sounds.
Well how do we know all these sounds are good? Could all these sounds make Swiftlets stay and make nest in the shortest period of time in our farm? Well in order to tell the differences we had to have some knowledge about Birds chirping sounds.
If you understand the functions of every each type of sound and able to differentiate them , then choosing one is not that hard.
There are many type of sounds available now, some have been mixed and collaborated with Synthetic sounds.
The sole reason is to attract as many birds as possible to come to the source of sound
but this doesn't mean that the birds would enter the farm to stay and to make nest.
A good sound may not attract many birds to come and play at the initial stage but it has the ability to encourage the birds to enter the farm easily. This type of sound normally are smooth sounds that make the Swiftlets feel more safe, comfortable and eager to enter the entrance hole.
There are many incidents where newly built farms started to play the Birds sound ,the first few weeks it attracted many birds (hundreds) but weeks later not a single one comes.
There are also incidents when the bird sound is played hundreds of birds came flying above the farm but non, not even a single one wants to enter the entrance hole.
So it is not appropriate to use numbers of birds a Cd sound could attract to justify a good sound. It is a totally wrong perception. Lets have some understanding about sound.
Important criteria of selecting a good quality sound is; 1) The sound must be clear
2) No hiss & hum
3) No back ground sound other than bird' chirping (except Stress sound for Birds call purposes).
Basically Swiftlet Sounds could be divided into 3 groups;1) External sounda) Pooling sound:
This sound is placed outside of the farm to attract birds from farm away or from other nearby farms. This is done by using the
Hexagonal speaker or the Long Rage speaker the (DIY)b) External sound:
Which is placed at the entrace hole to attract birds to come into the farm.
c) Inviting sound:
Which is placed at the Roving area to invite and guide the birds to venture deeper into the farm so that more area of the farm are covered by the birds thus higher chances of fast nest building.
(Hexagon Tweeter, to attract Swiftlets to you farm)
2) Internal sounda) Baby Swiftlet sound
This is mainly the sound of baby and female chirping . It is played in the nesting area to encourage the birds to breed. Choosing a right baby sound is important .This will make young birds to feel safer.
b) Population & Baby sound
This is a powerful sound that encourage population grow and to encourage birds to stay. It also prevent the young birds from leaving your farm for others farms. This sound is recorded from dense birds population farms. Playing this sound the birds feel safer. It is to increase birds population.
3) Birds Test soundThis sound is created for the purpose of birds test only. The frequency is very high where it could be heard farm from far away. It is a distress call (SOS) . "STRESS SOUND" it is not recommended for farm use.
Having in- dept understanding about sound would help you to avoid playing sound that might be feared by swiftlet. That is why so many complained that when they changed the CD sound of their farms all birds fly away and never come back.
Sound is one of most powerful factors in the micro environment any mistake made will do lots of harm to your farm.
Also understanding the function of each types of sound would help your farm to attracts birds to stay and make nest. Currently I am compiling few sets of Cd sounds that consist of the above external & internal sounds.
These compilations are re-mixed of sounds that encourage birds to enter the entrance hole without fear, especially for new farm and for internal sound it is a combination of baby and population sound to encourage young birds to make nest. A set comes in 2 Cds. It has been carefully re-mixed and selected from 20 best Cd sounds available.
Simply playing unknown CD sound in your farm could cause damage. So choosing the right sound and using them in the right place is most decisive.
For those who want to know more detail about the cds please email
swifjames@yahoo.com.