Every year, birds that breed in Europe and Asia migrate south to spend the winter in Africa, passing over Tsavo National Park in Kenya between late September and December. On dark, misty nights during migration, many birds become disoriented and land in the bushes and shrubs around the lights of Ngulia Safari Lodge, situated in the Ngulia Hills Escarpment.   This year's migration brought a rich mix of migratory and resident bird songs. As day broke, the beautiful savanna was filled with...

End of December and it is a pleasant afternoon. It is hot and there are a few white clouds. It rained the previous days and will continue to rain throughout the summer. We hear some cicadas, insects and distant birds. Everything is in apparent stillness, until a warm wind moves the foliage of the forest. Can you feel the humidity? Recorded by Verónica Cerrotta in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It’s around 6 am, just as dawn light starts to penetrate to the forest floor. The insects are vocal but not annoyingly so. Birds start calling here and there, building momentum with every chirp, tweet or whatever bleating/cackling noise Macaws make. There are Motmots everywhere, uttering their own name every few seconds in low tones. Recording by George Vlad in the Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica

Zarnesti has given me what are undoubtedly my fondest memories of our trip to Romania. It was such a beautiful place – so quiet, so verdant and just a wonderful place to be. We travelled there with nowhere to stay and we picked a house up in the hills at random and it just happened to belong to a truly amazing retired older couple. They made us feel like we were visiting family and they had us sit down with them in their warm and hearty living room for a chat and some delicious homemade...

Unprecedented and chaotically distributed rainfall in the monsoon of 2023 led to devastating floods in the Himalayan regions, including the Kangra Valley, and adjoining plains of Punjab. River Beas, in and around the town of Mandi, was one of the worst affected due to these floods. The overflowing water from the Himalayan Ranges caused flooding in the other adjoining states of North India as well. Apart from Geological features, Forest patches, and Riverbeds, human-made structures like...

The upland rainforests of far-north Queensland are home to many species found nowhere else. This recording features the sounds of birds and insects along with a gentle breeze at dusk in this unique habitat. In the latter part of the recording, darkness falls and the sounds of crickets intensify. The wild crowings of Orange-footed Scrubfowl can be heard in the distance. Recording by Marc Andersson in the Girringun National Park, Australia

A nocturnal recording that  gives you a “look” into the secret life of Wolves in nature. We are in the mountain slopes, and the recording spot is near the Wolves, close to a doe carcass killed by the Wolves probably night before; the carcass is mostly eaten.  This is a perimeter of around 20m in diameter, a so-called ‘kill zone’ where everything happens. The carcass is mostly eaten. What remains is the bones and some soft tissue. You can hear how the bones/spine are cracking in the Wolf’s...

I travelled to Tarangire National Park in Northern Tanzania just at the end of the dry season and beginning of the rainy season in November. Covering an area of 2,600 square kilometres, Tarangire is popularly known as the land of giants; and from our arrival, you could tell why. The Park is strewn with giant baobab trees that were starting to flower. Not far into the park we encountered another giant’s presence, the African elephant. Apart from these two iconic species and other animals, the...

A vivid dawn chorus from the steamy forests of lowland West Papua. While the rainforest is still dark, Hooded Butcherbirds sing melodic fluty phrases to welcome the new day. The calls of nocturnal frogs and insects gradually fade as other diurnal species become active. Recording by Marc Anderson in Birds Head Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia

In a remote mountain valley, around 1250m above sea level, the surrounding mountains create a nice natural echo felt through the songs of the dawn chorus in the late spring. Recording in Jelenje, Croatia by Ivo Vicic

Early fall. Yellow leaves fall from the aspen trees. Quiet between gusts, cool wind blowing from the north. A change of season is in the air. Warm days, cool nights. The vastness of the land is something from classic American western stories. Near the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, the Eastern Rocky Mountains of Montana reach into the clouds. The first dusting of snow coating the peaks. Recorded over night with a wide stereo bar and two MKH8020’s this quiet land is full of beauty and...

Enjoy this soothing calm calling of birds in the Ankasa rainforest with calm water rushing in the background. The thick canopy of the trees shielded me from the hot sunshine in the tropical rainforest as I recorded these sounds. Recording by Isaac Amoasi Arkoh

As the sounds of daytime fade away in the rainforests of Sumatra, a thick and piercing insect chorus takes over. The soundscape becomes harsh and deafening in places. The frequency spectrum is taken over by stridulating, buzzing and trilling organisms that have few other ways of communicating besides sound. The crickets, katydids, cicadas (including the Empress cicada) are joined by frogs and birds that sound just like insects themselves. The first few times I experienced this, it sounded...

Around four in the morning the insect chorus and water dripping sounds start to slowly morph into something more lively. Distant howler monkeys can be heard, while a flock of macaws is making a racket nearby. Screaming piha calls remind me I’m in the Amazon, while Motmots utter their low frequency bubbling call. Later on, toucans and toucanets join in along with a myriad other species. Recorded in Pery by in the Reserva Territorial Madre de Dios, by George Vlad

Experience the raw power of the Pacific Ocean as powerful waves crash upon a secluded sandy beach. The coastline is located in the Colombian region of Choco where there are no roads and the whole coastline is separated by impenetrable jungle hills from the rest of the mainland. Recording by Jan Brelih in Choco, Colombia

It’s 5 a.m. at the Ankasa Rainforest. I woke up at around 4:30 a.m. and made my way through the thick darkness to capture the jungle ambience at dawn. Using the torchlight from my phone, I could hardly see anything but the beautiful symphony from the forest urged me to walk on untill I got to the desired spot where I set up my microphones. Enjoy this hour-long soundscape of nature at dawn. This recording was done by Isaac Amoasi Arkohm, in Ghana, a current grantee of our field recording...

A relaxing evening song of birds in the a forested hill area near a big lake. The most common birds on this recording are: Common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), Common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), Common blackbird (Turdus merula) , Song thrush (Turdus philomelos), European robin (Erithacus rubecula), Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus), European green woodpecker (Picus viridis) and the Nightjar (Caprimulgidae) at the end of the recording as the night falls. Other sounds captured:...

It’s sunset time on the shore of the lake and the last birds of the day fly over the still water. From the treetops I can hear the movement of leaves and branches. There are some distant sounds that I cannot decipher where they come from or how they are produced. A few meters away, a white horse shines and takes a deep breath in the darkness. It’s getting dark. The crescent moon rises and illuminates the ground, the water and the plants with a silvery and mysterious light. The...

Soundscapes cannot be preserved across centuries like buildings, writings or fossils. In the jungles of the Yucatan there are countless archaeological sites where you can see what the Mayan civilisation lived like. You can admire their intricate architectural design and wonder at the advanced glyph script they developed. Can you hope to experience the same soundscapes as they did? You probably can. The first step would be to remove all the sounds that Mayans did not experience in their...

It is an early August morning. There is some wind and the sky is cloudy. At this time of the year, the Mulungú blooms: there are several of them, full of red flowers. Now it also blooms the yellow Ipe and the Congea tomentosa, that brings a lot of lilac flowers. There are Embaúbas and a very big Ficus, Avocados, Boldo and Jabuticaba trees. Birds fly from one tree to another, moving their leaves and branches. The ground is full of dry leaves. Recording by Verónica Cerrotta In São José do...

An inescapable sensation of floating fills my consciousness. A state of lucidity. Not entirely awake but not asleep. Conscious of surrounding ripples, the warm meadowlark song drifts in the air. I feel translucent. Light. Time passes and there is no distance between it. Opening my eyes returns awareness to the small tent I’m laying in. Narrowing myself back to a singular perception. Birdsong here carries you away. Do these small melodic Aves feel this expansion they provoke? Awake and...

The Okefenokee is one of the largest, intact swamps in the entire world. There’s only one road into the swamp and it terminates at Stephen C. Foster State Park, a Gold-tier International Dark Sky Park. Recorded by Jared Blake in the Stephen C Foster State Park, USA

!This recording has very high dynamics and so we advise extra care on your listening volume, especially if you are wearing headphones! The area above Kamniška Bistrica, surrounded by mountains, was hit by a series of extremely powerful thunderstorms. Some of these storms triggered avalanches and flash floods. The recorded storm passed over the area during the night and you can hear the sounds of swollen torrential streams. Later, near the recording location, a flash flood was also...

It’s a beautiful morning by the Kapamba river in South Luangwa NP, Zambia. The sun isn’t up yet but it’s already quite hot. There’s a soft breeze that makes the heat more bearable, and there are some clouds on the horizon promising rain in the afternoon. The dawn chorus is in full swing. Doves, coucals, geese, bee eaters and a myriad other birds are calling incessantly. Antelope stop by to inspect the bush and then run away snorting like pigs. In the river, a hippo will come up for air...

This recording captures the essence of a night spent by a pond during the Flower Moon in the untamed wilderness of the Barycz Valley. The rhythmic ambiance is shaped by the melancholic croaks of fire-bellied toads and the deep resonances of great bitterns, creating a captivating backdrop. As the recording progresses, the symphony of the night unfolds, showcasing the raucous calls of tree frogs, the subtle clicks of bats, and the distinctive cries of the whooper swan.Each nocturnal creature...