Playback and Birding

I’ve never been a big user of playback in birding. “Playback” is the act of playing animal calls, typically bird calls, from a speaker into the forest to try and lure out otherwise uncooperative subjects. The reason I haven’t used it much are two fold:

• I’m interested in capturing the most natural behaviors possible. Any action of mine that influences the behavior of the animal takes away from the authenticity of what I’m capturing (this is personal opinion, by the way)

• I spend a lot of time birding and exploring in NYC, where wildlife lovers are often stacked on top of each other. Its a courtesy to not use playback without getting consent from everyone present.

But I gotta tell ya. I had an experience today that made me a believer. It’s the end of spring migration, and I’m hoping to add a few birds to my Van Cortlandt Life List. Deep in the Northwest woods, where some of the trees are 100 feet tall I heard a Canada Warbler calling. But of course, it’s being deeply uncooperative for a decent photo. So I open up Merlin, the Bird I.D. App, and play the song of a Canada Warbler recorded in New Jersey in 2020. And sure enough, that little bird came right in. I almost couldn’t believe it. I’d tried playback once or twice before, but I’d never had success like this. It’s easy to see what people use it and even get addicted to it.

Despite this, I still think I’m gonna hold off on using it much. Maybe. We’ll see next migration.