Transcription of bird recordings as part of monitoring and research on boreal avifauna in Quebec and Labrador

The Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) monitors avian fauna using digital audio recorders (BAR-LT from Frontierlabs and Song Meter from Wildlife Acoustics). These recorders are programmed to capture the vocalisations and sounds of birds at different dates and times of day, mainly during the nesting season. To identify bird species and determine their relative abundance, the recordings need to be listened to by specialists in acoustic ornithology. These recordings provide important data for monitoring migratory birds, a number of which are in decline or endangered. The aim of the work is to transcribe bird species and the abundance of individuals of each species by listening to recordings and visualising their representation in the form of diagrams as a function of time, frequency and sound power (sonograms). ECCC will provide pre-selected recordings that can be accessed via the Wildtrax transcription interface (www.wildtrax.ca). Transcription will be carried out via the Wildtrax interface.