Editing Birdwatching (section)

===Sound equipment===
Recognition of [[bird vocalization]]s is an important part of a birder's toolkit. Sound information can assist in the locating, watching, identification, and sometimes sexing of birds. Recent developments in audio technology have seen [[Portable audio|recording and reproduction]] devices shrink in both size and price, making them accessible to a greater portion of the birding community.

The non-linear nature of digital audio technology has also made selecting and accessing the required recordings much more flexible than tape-based models. It is now possible to take a recording of every bird call you are likely to encounter in a given area out into the field stored on a device that will slip into your pocket and to retrieve calls for playback and comparison in any order you choose.

As the technology continues to improve, researchers and hobby birders have started using convolutional neural networks to mine sound recordings to identify and track specific bird calls.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240502113710.htm |title=Artificial intelligence enhances monitoring of threatened marbled murrelet |publisher=Oregon State University |via=Science Daily |date=2 May 2024 |access-date=15 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Passive acoustic monitoring and convolutional neural networks facilitate high-resolution and broadscale monitoring of a threatened species |first1=Adam |last1=Duarte |first2=Matthew J. |last2=Weldy |first3=Damon B. |last3=Lesmeister |first4=Zachary J. |last4=Ruff |first5=Julianna M. A. |last5=Jenkins |first6=Jonathon J. |last6=Valente |first7=Matthew G. |last7=Betts |display-authors=2 |journal=Ecological Indicators |volume=162 |date=May 2024 |doi=10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112016 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2024EcInd.16212016D }}</ref>