In mid April I was asked in a radio interview about field recordings, what was my favorite bird. My quick answer was „Starling“….or, I was not sure. But that was going to be clear a few days later.
Starling is a new immigrant in Iceland. It was first seen 1940 in Hornafjörður, south east Iceland and in Reykjavik 1960. So today it is a very common bird in many urban places around Iceland, however, mainly in south west Iceland
His song is usually a loud high frequency tweet or rough ugly scream. But some starlings seem to have the ability to learn complex sounds and tweed them unbelievably well.
Thanks to COVID-19, Reykjavik city gets very quiet with less traffic in April, which open a completely new and lovely natural soundscape in the city
So it gives me a great opportunity to record the bird life to the finest details in my garden in several days.
The following recording are selected moments of a 10 hours long recording which I made over night on the 25th to 26th of April in the garden I use Audio Technica, AT4022 which I place with 50cm apart, on the ground, where I usually feed the birds during the winter moths. I use a simple foam as a windshield and hide them in brown nylon socks.
I guess it is only one bird that imitates all the songs or sounds in this recording, which is totally outstanding. He imitates birds like ravens, seagulls, blackbird and redwing, which sounds even better than the original redwing song, golden plower, goose, duck, oystercatcher, great northern diver, common redpoll, snow bunting… and I am sure some other species too. You can also hear him imitate ambulance, rubber toy, dog and humans.
If you recognize some other sounds, birds or animal species in this recording, please leave a comment below.
So one thing is for sure. I did not lie in the radio interview. starling is my favorite bird.
Please notice this recording have a wide dynamic range, so don´t play it loud. Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid level, or in speakers at low level.
(mp3 256kbps / 65,2Mb)
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Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre6
Mics: Audio Techinca AT4022 AB50/boundary
Pix: Canon EOS30
Weather: Cludy, calm about 5°C
The whole radioprogram with the interview – and only with me, Magnus Bergsson (sorry, only in Icelandic)
HLJÓÐMYND - SOUNDIMAGE 
Greetings! love this site. Very inspiring. I need some advices friend. I’m a amateur field recordist and i’m interested in get some good equipment for regular and new level entry. For example I’ll get Sony PCM-100/50 for handheld do you recomend any Sound Devices Recorder for a newbie like me? And what about Mics and HeadPhones? i like Sennheiser headphones but i dont know what to pick. I mostly will use my equipment to records urban soundscape and Mountain.
Pd: Sorry for my weird english.
Hi Bob
Thanks for listening
PCM-100/50 are nice recorders, but if you like to upgrade I can highly recommend MixPre recorders. The preamps are one of the best on the market. MixPre are light, compact, with good power efficient and therefore perfect for field recordings.
It is hard to recommend microphones because there are so many options. It depends your budget, if you have noise reduction software, how you travel to record (long walk/cycling or driving) and what you are going to record, open soundscape / ambiances or something else .
Headphones are like a shoes. You need to find what fits best you personal taste and ears. I personally use Sonu MDR-7506 and Sennheiser HD-650. mainly because they sounds great but differently as closed and open headphones do. Best of all, they do not push on my ears. That is one of the reason why I can´t use Sennheiser HD-25 II which sounds great but hey push on my ears.
Keep in mind in-ear headphones could be as well the best option for you if it fits you, like Sennheiser IE40 pro
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Hi – Thanks for the new recordings!
I’m curious if there was a specific reason why you selected the AT4022. It seems like many of your recordings lately are the MKH8020/8040 AB pair, or large diaphragms.
Hi Steve The reason was mainly because other mics was in blimps and therefore easier to hide them on the ground
AT4022 is a pretty good mic, especially with its low noise. It is also a good mic in rumbling traffic noise because it is not so sensitive for low frequency as MKH’s.
It sounds pretty similar at full frequency ranges as MKH20 with 80Hz even 90Hz HPF