Chronicling the Sounds of Nature

Linda Macaulay travels the world, recording the voices of birds

By Elizabeth Quill

Linda Macaulay in Madagascar, recording the sounds of wildlife.

Photo courtesy of Linda Macaulay

Linda Macaulay circles the globe, listening for the beautiful, rare, and unknown voices of the world's wild fliers.

Traveling across Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Australia, she has captured thousands of sounds from more than 2,600 species. Her most memorable recordings include Whitehead's Trogon, Yellow-eared Toucanet, Gray-necked Rockfowl, African Pitta, and Golden Nightjar.

"Every area on earth has its own unique sounds. It is amazing to just close your eyes and listen," Macaulay said. "The sounds are so varied and they tell a rich story. Nothing is as wonderful to hear as the rainforests of South America which have the most complicated and diverse dawn chorus in the world."

All of Macaulay's recordings are archived in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library, the world's largest archive of natural sounds and associated video. The Macaulay Library, a "virtual museum" of animal behavior, was named after Linda and her husband Bill, who gave generously to create the high-tech facility in 2003.

The Superb Lyrebird produces an amazing variety of vocalizations during its courtship display, recorded by Macaulay in Australia last year

Drawing by Robert Gillmor

Macaulay started recording sounds after she and her husband traveled to Kenya in 1987 with Greg Budney, curator of the audio collection. Soon thereafter, they met and were encouraged by the late Ted Parker, a renowned ornithologist, gifted recordist, and contributor to the library.

After buying a tape recorder for her husband, Macaulay used it herself. She took the Lab's sound recording class and was ready to go. She went everywhere. Macaulay's work became mission-driven when she recorded a display between two Egyptian Plovers in Senegal in 1989. It was a first cut for the Lab.

"I assumed the Lab had everything," she said. "I realized, if I kept doing this, I could contribute a lot to the library."

She has since provided 550 first cuts for the library, more than a handful of which were first recordings in the world. Budney said many of the species Macaulay recorded will probably never be recorded again.

"She is a quintessential example of the citizen scientist who has taken a personal pursuit and turned it into something larger," Budney said.

Macaulay said her two biggest challenges have been learning to use the recorder and getting to where the birds are. "It is better if you know what you are doing," she said. "You have to have good equipment…You need to have a lot of patience. You need to learn to listen."

She said the most talented recordists add clear and specific voice labels and try to tape a variety of calls and behaviors in different locations. The sounds drive science, providing resources for research and conservation monitoring.

"Every time I go out in the field, I can come back with a question about some species that somebody can work on," Macaulay said.

Her recordings chronicle nature and each sound takes her somewhere she would never normally go. In Gabon, she visited the caves where Gray-necked Rockfowl live. On a trip to Rwanda, she walked on a maze of floating masses in the swamps in search of a Shoebill. And in Zimbabwe, she watched male African Pittas throw themselves off their branches into the air, stretch their wings, call loudly, and then land where they began.

She encountered some unusual dangers along the way. After landing in Papua New Guinea, Macaulay and her party were surrounded by 40 men with spears. In Ethiopia, every man older than age 16 carried an AK-47. Bill Macaulay recalled his wife's close encounter with a hippo and his own concerns, at times, about lions. "But she's managed to stay alive this whole time," he said.

"We have a different risk profile than most people, she said.

And for Macaulay, one recording is never enough. After all, she said, no one looks at a cardinal and decides she never needs to see another. "People say to me, 'Why do you do this?'" Macaulay said. "It is just a passion. It is a challenge. It is goal-oriented. And I know I can accomplish something meaningful that will outlast me."

"There is also the gift of being out in nature where it is truly beautiful," she said. "It is almost a religious experience in some ways. Nature is powerful but also peaceful. And it is terribly exciting."

To hear Linda Macaulay's recordings of animals from around the world, visit BirdScope online at www.birds.cornell.edu/publications.

Elizabeth Quill is a science-writing intern.

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu