The first bird call imitation competition, to be held alongside the 16th Dasyueshan Bird Race, opened for submissions on Wednesday.
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Taichung branch organized the competition in collaboration with the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation this year, with the goal of raising conservation awareness by encouraging people to “speak bird languages.”
Bird vocalization can be divided into two categories — songs and calls — which serve as a key criterion for identifying bird species and have different communicative functions in terms of alarms, social interaction, and courtship and mating, the branch said on Wednesday.
Photo courtesy of the Wild Bird Association of Taiwan
Mimicking bird voices helps enhance people’s understanding of bird behaviors and encourages support for wildlife conservation, it said, adding that listening to bird sounds is therapeutic.
The competition is open to people of all ages and nationality, with the deadline for submission for the preliminary round set at March 31.
Contestants in the preliminary round are required to submit an audio recording no longer than three minutes consisting of their self-introduction and an imitation of the call and song of the Taiwan bamboo partridge, an endemic species.
The song of the Taiwan bamboo partridge is suitable for the preliminary round, as the species is widely distributed across the nation’s plains and mid-elevation mountains, making the song one of the most familiar bird voices in Taiwan, the branch said.
The panel of judges would select up to 10 contestants for the final round based on their imitation’s timbre, rhythm and resemblance to the song.
Experts in bird vocalizations would be invited to judge the competition, the branch said.
Contestants selected for the final round would be announced on the federation’s Web site on April 10, and would be rewarded with an entrance ticket to the Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area (大雪山國家森林遊樂區) in Taichung and a NT$1,500 allowance for accommodation in the recreation area, it said.
The final round of the competition is to be held at the recreation area’s visitor center on May 2.
In the final round, shortlisted contestants are expected to present the voice of the Taiwan bamboo partridge again and then choose one of the four other designated bird species for another imitation.
The four bird species are white-bellied green pigeons, Taiwan scimitar-babblers, Taiwan yuhinas and black-naped monarchs — all of which can be found in Dasyueshan (大雪山).
Contestants would be assessed based on their on-site performance, with the top three decided through both the judge panel’s evaluation and the audience’s voting results.
The Dasyueshan Bird Race is a competition to see which team can spot the most bird species in and around Dasyueshan within 24 hours.
It is an annual birdwatching event that has been organized by the branch for 15 years and is to be held this year over the weekend from May 1 to 2.
People can sign up for both competitions and find out more information provided on the agency’s Web site.
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