Why are thousands of African bird species missing from sound libraries? And what’s being done about it?

Before I see the lilac-breasted roller, I hear it: A harsh, rasping call that seems comically at odds with the bird’s delicate watercolor plumage. Nearby, Cape glossy starlings chatter and warble from the treetops, while the unmistakable wail of a majestic African fish eagle—widely known as the ‘voice of Africa’—carries across the Sweni River in South Africa’s Greater Kruger. 

For birders living in Africa, like me, these sounds are as much a part of the continent as the animals themselves—and they provide invaluable clues when dense foliage makes the singers difficult to spot with your binoculars.

Yet for all of Africa’s remarkable biodiversity—more than half of its avian species are endemic—many remain poorly represented or even absent from the sound libraries that support AI-power identification tools. As a result, technology used to recognize birds doesn’t work as effectively across the continent. For example, less than 30 percent of African bird species have the 150 recordings needed to successfully train the popular Merlin Bird ID app (think of it like Shazam for birds).

The Big Year of African Sounds—a continent-wide initiative led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and BirdLife South Africa—aims to fix that imbalance by rallying the birding community to document the vocalizations of more than 1,800 species across 50 countries.

Vocalizations aren’t only useful to birders; they’re essential data that helps scientists study behavior and population size. These recordings are being uploaded to open-access platforms, including the Macaulay Library and eBird, to create a richer acoustic archive that can improve technology and deepen our understanding of African birdlife.

The Big Year of African Sounds is already filling critical gaps. Participants captured the first-known recordings of red weavers in northern Kenya’s fragile, coastal Boni-Dodori Forest, providing evidence that the ‘lost’ species is breeding there. “Such information helps inform key conservation decisions like what areas are important for migration or certain populations,” says Cullen Hanks, project leader at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

“We’re on such a great trajectory as a continent. Whether or not they all become dedicated sound recordists, the project has helped us build a bigger community of birders.”

- James Kinghorn, BirdLife South Africa

Some of the project’s target species aren’t so exotic, like the hadada ibis, whose raucous cackle wakes me (and the rest of Cape Town) each morning. With current sound libraries skewed toward European seasonal migrants, even common African birds have surprisingly few recordings. That makes documenting a ‘common’ bird as valuable as capturing a sought-after rarity—and means anyone can contribute simply by recording what they hear in their own backyard.

The initiative also addresses another blind spot on the continent: Access. Traditionally a niche pursuit requiring technical expertise and expensive equipment, sound recording can be intimidating even to highly knowledgeable birders.  “I’ve had birders tell me, ‘I thought sound recording was something that only ornithologists did,’” says Hanks. Nowadays, you don’t necessarily require a sophisticated directional or parabolic microphones; even a smartphone can capture useful audio.

Inspired by these conversations, BirdLife South Africa and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology hope the Big Year of African Sounds can demystify sound recording and provide participants with a new skillset. “Some of our most skilled birders come from communities that face the same challenges that many African countries do, which is access to resources,” says John Kinghorn, BirdLife South Africa Avitourism Project Manager. 

But recording equipment is only one part of the equation. “Depending on where they live aspiring birders may also lack access to binoculars, smartphones, reliable internet, training, and—crucially—mentorship,” says Kinghorn. “Someone can become interested in birds but have no obvious way to develop that interest.”

Throughout the year, a growing network of the Big Year of African Sounds partners, including BirdWatch Zambia and Nature Tanzania, are offering webinars, guided walks, and training sessions across the continent. Participants learn how to capture, edit, and upload audio, as well as how bird calls can contribute to conservation. 

Travelers can join in the Big Year of African Sounds, too. If you’re exploring the continent and are a keen birder, recordings can be uploaded to eBird until the end of 2026. You can then track your contributions, including how many species and calls have been recorded, and see which target birds still need submissions.

Preliminary results are already showing how quickly the Big Year of African Sounds has gained momentum. As of August this year, 686 recordists across Africa had documented 1,489 species, contributing 32,737 recordings—nearly twice the 17,118 submitted during all of 2025. While the Big Year of African Sounds will officially end, organizers hope that enthusiasm will continue. “We’re on such a great trajectory as a continent,” says Kinghorn. “Whether or not they all become dedicated sound recordists, the project has helped us build a bigger community of birders.”

As for me, perhaps the next time a hadada ibis wakes me at dawn, I’ll reach for my phone to record it before reaching for my earplugs.

You can join the project’s WhatsApp channel to stay updated on upcoming events, including webinars that cover the basics of recording.

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