Total Species Recorded: 78

March was a slow month for my Big Recording Year Challenge since I had already recorded the winter birds that were the easiest to capture, as well as many year-round residents. What has baffled me, however, are some birds that I thought would be much easier to record but have escaped my list thus far.

Take for example the American Crow. I thought that would be an easy pick-up, but it eluded me for months. Crows aren’t abundant where I live, but I figured that I would eventually hear this species at a park. Yet I mostly heard ravens rather than crows. On the occasion that a crow would emerge onto the soundscape, it was always too brief of a call and I wasn’t able to hit “record” in time.

In recent weeks, I noticed a single crow hanging out in my neighborhood and was actually quite vocal. But for days, I still couldn’t catch a recording. The crow would usually stop calling once I set up my phone, even when I was a fair distance away and likely not spooking it. It taunted me with each bird walk around my neighborhood. I gave up and figured I would just wait for my next trip to SoCal or the East Bay where they are abundant.

One morning, I had the windows opened for some fresh air. I love mindlessly listening to the birds in the backyard as I work around the house. Eventually, one call in particular caught my attention. I dropped whatever it was I was doing, grabbed my microphone, and started to set up Merlin and eBird on my phone as I bolted to the backyard door. I never saw the crow because it was on a roof hidden by a tree,, but it continually called caw caw caw. I held my breath as I recorded it, hoping that the ambient noise wouldn’t infiltrate the recording too much. Using a microphone helped to focus the sound on the crow, and I finally managed to record my “easy” bird nemesis.

Now that I have finally nabbed a crow recording, I’ll move on to the next “easy” bird to target: a Mallard!

To read more posts about this challenge, see the dedicated Bird Recording Challenge 2026 web page or click on “Bird Recording Challenge 2026” under “Tags” at the bottom of this post.