iPod Instructions

 

Transferring Bird Songs Into Your iPod or iPhone
(or Any Other mp3 Player)

 

Overview:

An iPod is a very small, portable electronic device used to play songs. iPods are made by Apple Computer, Inc. About 200 million iPods have been sold since they were first introduced in October 2001.

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Three iPod designs are now available

 

Version 4 of Guide to Birds of North America lets you easily export the 653 bird songs into your iPod or iPhone as mp3 files. (You should also be able to export songs to any other mp3 player.) You can then create “playlists” and arrange the songs in any way you like. Your iPod can play back the songs through earphones or through an external speaker.

 

We suggest that you start by exporting songs from the Guide to Birds of North America DVD into a folder on your desktop. Then use iTunes to create a playlist and import the bird songs from your computer desktop into this playlist. Finally, copy this playlist into your iPod.

Please be aware that all songs are copyrighted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. You may use these songs only for your own personal, private use. You may not share these song recordings with friends. You may not use them commercially or post them on the Internet. Violators are subject to prosecution, fines and imprisonment. All songs belong to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, not you.

 

 

Step 1: Prepare bird songs to be exported into iTunes

 

  1. On your computer desktop make a folder called BirdSongs (right-click in an open area of your desktop, click New and then click Folder. Name the folder BirdSongs.)

  2. Open Guide to Birds of North America (or My State or Province)

  3. Click the Custom Lists icon

  4. Click on any Custom List. In Guide to Birds of North America we recommend the custom list named “Birds with Sounds.

  5. In Windows, click File and then click ”Prepare for iPod/MP3 Player. In Mac, click the Prepare for iPod icon.

  6. Click the […] icon (Windows) or the magnifying Glass icon (Mac) and search for the folder you created in step 1. Highlight the folder name and click “OK” or “Select.”

  7. Bird song files use the common name of the bird. In Windows, you may choose either “First Last” or “Last, First”. “First Last” will display a name like “Song Sparrow” and “Last, First” will display “Sparrow, Song.” When searching for a bird song in your iPod, you may prefer one over the other. Some of the birds, especially seabirds, do not have songs, so the number of recordings exported will be less than the total number of species in the program.

  8. In Windows, click “OK.” This process may take 10-20 minutes. In Mac, the export happens right away, so you will need the Custom List to already be in the format you want.

  9. You now have a folder on your desktop named BirdSongs. It contains sub-folders with the bird songs. These songs are a file type known as mp3. Please remember that sharing these files with anyone is a criminal offense – these files belong to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, not you. You bought a DVD and the license agreement you accepted when you installed the program on your computer only gave you the right to use the sounds for your own personal use. The agreement in no way transferred ownership of any of the DVD contents to you.

 

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Expanded view of BirdSongs folder

 

 

Step 2: Import bird songs into iTunes

 

  1. Click the iTunes icon on your computer desktop. Follow the iTunes instructions for creating playlists and for exporting these playlists into you iPod or mp3 player. Below are the steps we needed to take to make this happen. Your results may be slightly different, so consult the help manual for your mp3 player or iTunes.

  2. Click File>New Playlist and name the playlist “All Bird Songs.” (You may also create a new playlist by clicking the plus sign at the bottom left corner of the screen or by clicking Ctrl+N.)

  3. Drag and drop the BirdSongs folder into the new playlist “All Bird Songs” in the iTunes Source list. A message near the top of the screen will tell you when the import is complete. This may take a few minutes.

  4. Congratulations. You have just created a “master” bird song playlist for your iPod.

  5. You may now want to click File>New Playlist and create other playlists such as “Birds I want to see on my trip” or “Saturday’s bird walk” or “Wetland birds of the Texas coast.”

  6. Drag and drop songs from the “All Bird Songs” playlist into the new playlists you just created. In iTunes you can select many birds at once. You do not need to drag and drop one at a time. For files that are adjacent in the list, hold down both the Alt and the Shift key together and then use your mouse to click the first file and the last file in the group you want. To use your mouse to select non-adjacent files, hold down the Ctrl key and the Shift key then click the files you want.

  7. You can quickly create playlists for bird families by dragging and dropping a sub-folder from your desktop into the new playlist. The BirdSongs folder created in step 1 has many sub-folders. The sub-folder “Perching Birds” has even more sub-folders. For example, to create a playlist for Warblers, click on the BirdSongs folder, then click the Perching Birds Folder, then drag and drop the “New World Warblers” folder into your iTunes playlist called “Warblers.”

  8. Bird playlists created in #6 and #7 will have the birds in taxonomic order. To change to alphabetical order, double-click the column header on the right containing the bird names.

  9. Within a playlist, you may drag and drop names to rearrange them in any order you like. The birds will then be exported to your iPod in this order.

  10. Once in iPod, if you want to rearrange the birds, you will need to do that in iTunes and reimport the list into your iPod.

 

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iTunes view of playlist called “All Bird Songs”

 

 

Step 3: Copy Playlists from iTunes into your iPod

 

  1. Connect your iPod to your computer using the USB 2.0 cord.

  2. Click the iPod icon (lower right part of the screen) or click Edit > Preferences.

  3. Click the Music tab and set the iTunes update setting to “Automatically update selected playlists.”

  4. Check off the playlists you want to copy into your iPod. Be sure to include cover art. Click OK.

  5. Right-click the iPod icon under Source that says something like “My iPod” (or whatever you named it.) Click “Update Songs.” Wait while your iPod is updated.

  6. Click the eject icon to the right of “My iPod” or right-click on “My iPod” and select Eject.

  7. Disconnect your iPod from the computer.

  8. Select Music > Playlists from your iPod. Select “All Bird Songs” Use the scroll wheel to move quickly to the bird you want to hear.

  9. To move around in your iPod, click Menu to go back one screen and click the center of the circle to make your selection. Please consult the iPod manual if you have any questions about Steps 2 or 3. Visit the Apple web site to see the online manuals. You may print out these manuals. Thayer Birding Software is not able to answer questions about how to use your iPod.

  10. iPods can enlarge the image displayed with each song – just click the center wheel 4-5 times.

 

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iPod on left and iPhone on right