What We're About

Spotted Owlet

Athene brama Everett's White-eye

Zosterops everetti Palm Crow

Corvus palmarum Black-streaked Scimitar-babbler

Pomatorhinus gravivox Eurasian Hobby

Falco subbuteo

Project AVoCet aims to provide a global database of well-documented, downloadable bird sounds in aid of environmental and ornithological research, conservation, education, and the identification and appreciation of birds and their habitats.

The scientific use of avian sound recordings has long presented special challenges for a variety of reasons, including the separation of the recording and the individual responsible for the sound; the frequent lack of information provided on how a given identification was arrived at; the variability and complexity of many bird sounds; and the fact that many species are still little known and difficult to find.

To help address these problems, among our major goals is the promotion of best practices in documentation so that individual recordings can serve as baseline data and can facilitate independent verification.

We also aim to provide many recordings made in a variety of conditions and localities, not only of rare, localized species but also of common species that tend to be vocal and are therefore those most likely to be encountered and recorded.

We hope you’ll find the recordings on our site useful. Please check back frequently as we’ll be adding many more over the next few months and beyond (see “What’s here now?). And, let us know if you’d like to get involved!

Accurate species identifications are our highest concern. If you believe you have found an error, please let us know at avocet@msu.edu.

Listen: View Recording Metadata