Acoustic Monitoring

The Song Meter SM2+ Platform is the most cost-effective and reliable solution for long-term acoustic monitoring of birds, frogs, terrestrial mammals and other wildlife.

“After testing different devices, we used Song Meters to complete a 3-year comparative study of the calling activity in 5 species of frogs and toads in thermal extremes of their distribution in Spain and Portugal. The reliability of the Song Meters proved to be quite satisfactory, and we are extending the acoustic monitoring of the populations intending to establish the first long-term monitoring system of anurans in Iberia and hoping to detect phenological trends related to climate change.”
Dr. Rafael Marquez from Fonoteca Zoológica, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC) in Madrid

“We are excited to see the nocturnal flight call package offering, and even more thrilled now that we’ve started using the system. This design fills a major unfilled niche in producing an off-the-shelf, cost- effective, portable, and waterproof recording system to study and monitor flight calls.”
Ken Rosenberg, Director of Conservation Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

SM2+ Terrestrial Acoustic Package

The SM2+ Terrestrial Acoustic Package includes two SMX-II weather resistant acoustic microphones.

  • All Song Meter products may be programmed effortlessly on a computer or directly on the device with simple or complex monitoring schedules relative to local sunrise and sunset.
  • File names are timestamped and include a programmable prefix to uniquely identify recordings made from each Song Meter.
  • Files can be recorded in standard uncompressed .WAV format, or using lossy or lossless compression in our .WAC format.
    • Convert WAC files back to standard WAV format with our free WAC2WAV utility available at no charge at our Downloads section of the website.
  • Log the internal temperature sensor and external sensor port every five minutes to a text file.
    • The external sensor readings can be converted automatically to fit a linear scale or a Steinhart-Hart equation used by precision thermistors.
    • We make a temperature probe suitable for water and soil temperature (and if properly shielded, for air temperature as well).
  • With optional GPS accessory location information can be stored each second.
    • Recordings become synchronized to the GPS clock to within one millisecond.
    • An array of multiple SM2+ with GPS receivers can be used to triangulate the location of a sound source by measuring the relative time-of-arrival of the sound wave as it travels across multiple microphones.

“The Song Meter was like extending our ears to remote areas during several days and even weeks. We could now monitor remote areas that seemed suitable for the birds. At first we did some trials in a test colony, identifying birds in flight and on the ground in a burrow. The first test in the field was negative, but we had a positive result in the second area we monitored. We found a new site just one mile away from a big well known colony. This is very good news for this shearwater.”
Ana Rodriguez Miguel McMinn, Biologists for the Local Conservation Council of the Balearic Islands.

Specifications

Power:
-Two AA batteries for internal clock lasts up to two years.
-Four D-size alkaline or NiMH batteries enable up to 230 hours of recording.
-Optional external power using SM2 Power Adapter (sold separately).
Storage: From 8GB up to 128GB with SDHC or 512GB with SDXC cards. 512GB supports storage up to 9 months.
Sampling Rate:4kHz to 96kHz
Recording Technology: 16-bit full spectrum.

For technical details, please refer to the SM2 Users Manual found under Documentation.


SM2+ Night Flight Call Package

The SM2+ Night Flight Call Package includes a special SMX-NFC weatherproof microphone designed especially for recording distant night flight calls in the sky while attenuating sounds from at and below the horizon such as insects and amphibians. The SMX-NFC has a microphone capsule mounted near the surface of a flat horizontal plate creating a pressure zone for sounds originating from above the plate. The design delivers flat frequency response up to 11kHz and 3-6dB signal gain with a beam angle of 125 degrees. For best results, the SMX-NFC would be mounted on a rooftop or high on a pole to keep it away from crickets and amphibians at ground level.

“We feel this product will be an invaluable tool, providing an easy to deploy, standardized, and quality controlled solution for monitoring nocturnal bird migration acoustically.”
Ken Rosenberg, Director of Conservation Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

For technical details, please refer to the SMX-NFC Night Flight Call Microphone Specification found under Documentation.