Brazilian Birds: ambient internet radio station of bird calls in the Amazon

My new ambient-sound-while-working internet radio jam: Brazilian Birds.

(Photo: Toucan eye, a Creative Commons image from doug88888's photostream)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: ambient • birds • brazil • internet radio • latin america • Nature • sound • wildlife

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theophrastvs

in the unlikely event that anyone else would wonder what does the adjective “ambient” have to do with “internet radio station”, it may be assumed that it comes from the notion of “ambient (noise|sound|music)” which just refers to the original meaning of ‘ambient’ being “to surround”; oddly enough as in: being generally not noticed. thus we learn “ambient internet radio” is that which can be associated with elevators/lifts, dental offices and the like [idiot grin]
Jonbly Herbert

Seems to be overloaded. You broke Brazil!

Bit odd to think of this as radio, though… it’s just a single recording, surely?
- Nadreck
  
  Well, if you insist on using one of those new-fangled interfaces such as iTunes there’s sure to be trouble: the RealPlayer server is running just fine!
  
  I like to think of this as a radio station using feeds from various drones which flit around the Amazon: returning now and then to the mother dirigible for upload and servicing.
Green Ghost

Great idea for this time of year when it’s too cold to open the windows and hear the local birds.
sarble montegue

Is this actually live-transmission? Or is it specially recorded for this station? Or is it just a collection of albums that we can purchase elsewhere? I want details!
sarble montegue

Gah! It’s just 4 short tracks, on a loop. See http://www.last.fm/music/BRAZILIAN+BIRDS

So, to do this better:

1. Google for “rip stream audio [your OS]“.
2. Download the 4 tracks (each is ~5MB and ~5min-long)
3. Profit! (By saving electricity and bandwidth for everyone involved).

Bonus. Find other good ambient/soundscape/biophony/field-recordings, such as everything by Douglas Quin, Francisco Lopez, Chris Watson, and Bernie Krause.
- endrest
  
  I’m glad someone else took the time to listen to this to find the pattern! It reminded me of a quandary I faced to create a truly random and endless ambient soundscape. I ended up creating a really elegant solution and used some CDs where I separated certain bird calls. I wasn’t that sophisticated to use noise-reduction, at that time (we’re talking 2001 on an iMac Bondi), but neither are these clowns! To listen to truly random jungle noise, try my 12-year old solution that, even I, revisit to calm and focus…
  
  http://newuprising.com/portfolio/flash/projects/naturecube/
  
  There’s a couple with water and crickets, too. Sorry iDevice users…. it’s Flash.
Adam Brown

In Australia we sometimes have “bird radio” 24/7 birdcalls on our digital radio, but it’s never permanent… I’d love to hear more suggestions like this? I’m starved for ACTUAL bird radio!
http://nawel.tumblr.com Nawel

Thanks!
valiant66

Whoa! This takes me back. We lived in Belem (on the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil) from when I was 2 1/2 to about 5. We had parrots that adopted us, and would eat breakfast with the family every day. When we left, I missed it terribly, but my dad had a record called something like “Birdcalls of the Amazon River” and when I got really bad he’d put that on the record player to take me back and calm me down. It’s got to be somewhere in my house (I’m a packrat), but I’m sure it would be horribly scratched up after all this time.