A Sound Way To Explore Hong Kong's Natural Melody

Remember that bird call you heard over the din of the city and wondered which bird that was?

If you thought that kind of knowledge was the preserve of those who spend hours in the wild, clutching binoculars and guide book, think again.

A new website launched by Baptist University and the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society is hoping to provide answers for people curious about which species are producing melodic songs.

Hong Kong Wildtracks is the city's first-ever interactive audio map that includes over 60,000 entries using data from three major surveys over the last 20-odd years.

"The nature and wildlife in Hong Kong is very, very rich and beautiful," said Christina Chan, an assistant manager at the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society. "But many people don't know the beauty of the nature in Hong Kong."

So now this website hopes this will be a sound way to make people enjoy it – with recorded cries of different birds and other sounds of nature.

Chan said it's especially useful as often people will hear birds before they see them. She hopes a greater awareness and appreciation of the city's rich biodiversity will help to encourage conservation.

But the website doesn't need to be an entirely academic exercise, she said, as bird songs are melodic and some people like to listen to them.

"Some [people] told me that, actually, the bird call is very melodic and gives them inspiration to compose music," said Chan.