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How an Ornithologist With a Microphone Made History
The story behind one of the first birdsong recordings ever made.
© David Hoffman
With today’s mobile apps and sound libraries, it’s never been easier to listen to birds on demand. But that wasn’t always the case – not until the 1920s when ornithologist Arthur Allen teamed up with an ambitious film production crew to record the dawn performance of a Song Sparrow. That first recording, featured in this episode, is now one of millions in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library.
BirdNote®
How An Ornithologist With A Microphone Made History
Written by Debbie Blicher
This is BirdNote.
[Song Sparrow]
With today’s mobile apps and sound libraries, it’s never been easier to listen to birds on demand. But that wasn’t always the case. Back in the 1920s, Cornell ornithology professor Arthur Allen wanted to help his students learn bird calls in the classroom — but back then, bird recordings were practically nonexistent.
[Music from The Jazz Singer]
Fortunately, this was the era of the first talking films and a prominent production company enlisted Arthur’s help to jazz up their movies with bird recordings.
Arthur and the production team hauled their clunky gear to the woods near Cayuga Lake. But the noisy equipment kept scaring away the birds!
Eventually, it occurred to Arthur to put just the microphone near a perch popular with Song Sparrows and leave the rest of the gear out of view. In the dawn hours of May 18, 1929, a little brown bird made history.
[Song Sparrow]
That day, Arthur and his team recorded a Song Sparrow, House Wren, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
[Rose-breasted Grosbeak]
With today’s high-tech recording tools, bioacoustics researchers can eavesdrop on whales underwater, bats in the air and more than 11,000 bird species found around the world — and it all started with a Song Sparrow.
[Song Sparrow]
For BirdNote, I’m Mark Bramhill.
###
Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Rose-breasted Grosbeak ML16968 recorded by Arthur A. Allen. Song Sparrow ML16737 recorded by Arthur A. Allen and ML191230 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2026 BirdNote May 2026
Narrator: Mark Bramhill
ID# sound-34-2026-05-18 sound-34
Reference:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/the-birth-of-natural-sound-recording/
https://cayugamuseum.org/movietone-vs-vitaphone/
Mark Bramhill
Narrator
Debbie Blicher
WriterSights & Sounds
