Camera microphones for bird sounds ?

My wife showed me during our last day trip these YouTube videos that are videos for cats that are essentially 24/7 recordings of birds and nature.  These videos have millions of views!  So this had me thinking we have a few spots around here where birds are always out feeding and hanging out.  I'm going to set up  my camera and record, but I want set up my mic to capture these sounds the best quality.  

How would you set up to capture the audio?  

If you only have one location, I'd use a Bluetooth microphone so you get better audio than if you used a mic attached to your camera.

Oh easy, jump on Google and type in "sound shark", it's a parabolic microphone that will work wonders for what you want it here.  These things are made to capture audio from a distance with birds as being one of the sounds they capture. 

Interesting, so would that sound shark thing compare to a quality shotgun mic?  

Farestad wrote: Interesting, so would that sound shark thing compare to a quality shotgun mic?  

It allows better targeted capture of sound 

Those sounds are therapeutic to listen to.   We play those videos for our furry family members.  

Do those things really work?  

Yes, parabolic microphones do work and work well for capturing distant sounds, but they  require aiming, like is necessary for your camera because they focus the sound in a narrow path like a spot light does, and eliminate other sounds from the surroundings better than performed by a shotgun type mic. I good one with a quality microphone, mounted to a second tripod near your camera, and aimed at the sound source should do what you want well. Keep in mind that the dish size and shape construction determines the quality of the collected sound as well. If a good shotgun type mic isn't good enough for your need, a good parabolic mic should be considered as your next step.

If you are a DIY type like me, you might consider making a parabolic mic out of an old small satellite dish or saucer type snow sled, mounting the mic in the same position as the removed satellite receiver electronics or just a way to allow adjustment. Add a bracket with a 1/4-20 threaded hole to allow attaching to your tripod and then go out with a small amplifier and headphones to test it, or your camera if you don't have an amplifier, but working this way without headphones is going to be difficult if the camera does not have a headphone jack. A bracket support for the mic to allow differences in distance of the sensitive portion of the mic from the center of the dish will allow tuning it for optimum results. Get it right, and it will be a great addition to your bird video gear.

I made one of these microphones from a dish snow sled 60 years ago, and it worked surprisingly well for what it was. Smaller would be more desirable and more portable for bird video work, but just keep in mind that the smaller diameter also reduces it's effectiveness.

A reply, telling us about your achievements would be great too. It might get others here  interested. 

Charley 

CharleyL wrote: Yes, parabolic microphones do work and work well for capturing distant sounds, but they  require aiming, like is necessary for your camera because they focus the sound in a narrow path like a spot light does, and eliminate other sounds from the surroundings better than performed by a shotgun type mic. I good one with a quality microphone, mounted to a second tripod near your camera, and aimed at the sound source should do what you want well. Keep in mind that the dish size and shape construction determines the quality of the collected sound as well. If a good shotgun type mic isn't good enough for your need, a good parabolic mic should be considered as your next step.

If you are a DIY type like me, you might consider making a parabolic mic out of an old small satellite dish or saucer type snow sled, mounting the mic in the same position as the removed satellite receiver electronics or just a way to allow adjustment. Add a bracket with a 1/4-20 threaded hole to allow attaching to your tripod and then go out with a small amplifier and headphones to test it, or your camera if you don't have an amplifier, but working this way without headphones is going to be difficult if the camera does not have a headphone jack. A bracket support for the mic to allow differences in distance of the sensitive portion of the mic from the center of the dish will allow tuning it for optimum results. Get it right, and it will be a great addition to your bird video gear.

I made one of these microphones from a dish snow sled 60 years ago, and it worked surprisingly well for what it was. Smaller would be more desirable and more portable for bird video work, but just keep in mind that the smaller diameter also reduces it's effectiveness.

A reply, telling us about your achievements would be great too. It might get others here  interested. 

Charley 

Very good post.  But my comment is aimed at you made one from a dish snow sled?!  I bet you were picking up radio signals from Mars!     That's awesome though, I really never thought about how that could work.  

"Very good post.  But my comment is aimed at you made one from a dish snow sled?!  I bet you were picking up radio signals from Mars!  

   That's awesome though, I really never thought about how that could work.  

"

In the early 1960's parabolic shapes weren't very available, at least not for DIY on a tight budget. Saucer sleds were available and even at a reasonable price if you had to buy one for a DIY project. Mine came from a friend who had had enough of going down the hills backwards and was going back to using his sled.

The small Satellite dishes from Dish Network are being thrown away as trash now, when people get tired of lost signal during rain and snow storms, probably dust storms too, so a likely choice for the needed focusing parabolic reflector at a very reasonable price - FREE.

Charley

I meant to say this about "picking up radio signals from Mars" -

With an audio microphone as the collector and a plastic parabolic dish there is absolutely no chance of picking up radio signals from Mars or anywhere else. This is an audio concentrator that focuses faint audio sounds by reflecting them to the focus point where the microphone can pick them up. The larger the parabolic dish, the more of the sound that can be collected, then amplified by the electronics that the microphone is plugged into. No radio signals involved in this at all. So, bigger is better, up to the point that it is difficult to transport, and way too attention getting when the public sees it. I haven't built one using a Satellite TV dish, but believe that one of that size would be much more portable and less attention getting, without sacrificing so much in pick up capability that it would be worthless. For audio and video work, you aren't likely interested in audio from a block away, 20-30 foot away maybe. I could hear conversations clearly from about a block away with the saucer sled, unless a car or truck going by blocked it, but it still took a good amplifier and headphones to amplify it enough to understand what they were saying. This was just a science experiment and I never listened to whole conversations from that far away. I actually had no real use for it at the time.

Now, with video cameras I think a smaller parabolic mic might be of some help sometimes, but just using a Rode Shotgun mic on top of my video camera with only the camera audio amplifier has captured "those important words" at a wedding ceremony with the camera and mic on a high tripod behind the attendees, so about 100' from the bride, groom and preacher, and outdoors in front of a horse barn. With that kind of capability, is there a real need for a parabolic microphone today?

Charley

Interesting, so would you all record your audio on seperate device from the camera?  

I usually record both on and off camera. The off camera audio is recorded on a Zoom H1N stereo audio recorder and is my back-up audio, in case there are problems with the camera audio. During Post, if the main audio has problems, missing, or unwanted sound I'll check this spot in the H1N audio to see it it is better. If it Is, I replace the main audio section with the same piece from the H1N audio recording. I mount the H1N on my camera frame while it's in use, start it before the camera and stop it after the camera. The built-in mics make it a complete package. 

Charley