October 2021https://www.birdobserver.org/Issues/2021/October-2021About Books: The Joys of Birding with QR Codeshttps://www.birdobserver.org/Issues/2021/October-2021/about-books-the-joys-of-birding-with-qr-codesBook and Video ReviewsFri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:07 GMT<h3><strong>Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist: Your Guide to Listening</strong><br /> Donald Kroodsma. 2020. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.</h3> <h3><strong>Birds of Colombia (Lynx and BirdLife International Field Guides)</strong><br /> Steven L. Hilty. 2021. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions.</h3> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Assets/bo49-5/Book_cover_1.png?ver=ua2rg4N0Bk28MS-MLMsK5Q%3d%3d" style="width: 231px; height: 340px; float: right; margin: 12px;" />QR codes are those square, black and white, densely patterned, matrix barcodes you see on signs, in books, even on television. They were invented in 1994 by the Japanese automotive supply company Denso Wave (hats off to Masahiro Hara). I have read that the design was inspired by the black and white pieces on a Go board, but this may be an apocryphal tech tale. These codes are read by an app, typically downloaded on your phone. When scanned, the QR code will lead you to a website that contains further information, photographs, or maps. By 2011, QR codes were in wide use in the United States, so it was only a matter of time before publishers of bird books realized that QR codes could be invaluable in enhancing the birders’ reading experience.</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;">“Bird song fills our lives with beauty and wonder.” (p. 1, <em>Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist</em>)</p> <p>Ornithologist Donald Kroodsma was among the first to understand the full possibilities of using QR codes in a bird book. His wonderful memoir <em>Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific</em> (2016)— reviewed by me in <em>Bird Observer</em> (2016)—was an account of his bike trip from coast to coast with his son, enjoying the birdsong all along the way. His text was augmented by a liberal use of QR codes throughout the memoir. As I wrote in my review of this book for <em>Bird Observer</em>:</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;">In the margins of <em>Listening to a Continent Sing</em> are 381 labeled QR Codes. You download a free QR Code reader app on your cell phone and when you get to a code (in the book), hold the phone over it and it quickly takes you to what is essentially another whole book accessed through your phone’s screen. This consists of state-of-the-art recordings of not just bird song, but atmospheric recordings, too, like people they met along the way, bees nectaring in fields, even geysers.</p> To view the rest of the article you'll need to subscribe. Bird Observer publishes original articles on birding locations, on avian populations and natural history, on regional rarities, field notes, field records, photographs, and art work.