This brief essay appeared in the November 2012 issue of Birding

Under what conditions is it okay to use recordings to attract birds? Here is the ABA’s official position, from its Code of Ethics:

Limit the use of recordings and other methods of attracting birds, and never use such methods in heavily birded areas, or for attracting any species that is Threatened, Endangered, or of Special Concern, or is rare in your local area.

There is more than a little ambiguity in this statement. If one is trying to attract, say, a Flammulated Owl, is playing ten seconds of a recorded Flammie call “limited”? Or does “limited” extend to anything less than one minute long? Five minutes?

Is it “limited” if you use a recording in the same location only twice during the course of the year? What about once each night for three days in a row? Every night for a week?

If one person’s use of a recorded call is “limited”, would it still be “limited” if three different people used the same call for the same duration? What about a dozen people?

And what, exactly, does it mean to be “rare in your local area” or for an area to be “heavily birded”?

On the other hand, parts of this statement are categorically unambiguous. Never use recordings with some species and in some areas. More generally, the call to “limit the use of recordings” makes it clear that a no-holds-barred approach to using recordings in the field is never acceptable.

Many birders use recordings in the field. Are they behaving ethically? Beginning birders, maybe even intermediate birders, might not know the ABA’s code of ethics. We more experienced birders should introduce them to it. Most newcomers are, I think, anxious to learn all they can about birding.

But what about the advanced birders who routinely use recordings (to muscle up their various lists, to get the perfect photo, etc.)? Some of them may simply interpret the ABA code of ethics liberally, of course. But oftentimes, I wonder. Do some advanced birders use recordings to attract birds without giving much (or even any) thought to the ethical implications of doing so? Do they simply want to attract the bird, and a recording is just an especially effective way of doing it? The ends justify the means, if the means are thought of at all?

I could tell stories; I’m sure most of us could. Postings on our local listserves boasting of calling in owls; stories told in the pages of Birding itself of using recordings to call in birds; guides on tours calling in skulky, hard-to-find species; the local expert—the sort of birder who sets a tone for other birders—cavalierly using tapes to call in species to tic off of a list, as he or she is leading a group, oftentimes of impressionable beginners.

Are these behaviors ethical? Obviously, they’re not unethical like, say, robbing a liquor store is unethical. But the ABA, at least, thinks that some behavior involving the use of recordings to attract birds is unethical, and that, moreover, all of it runs the risk of becoming unethical if certain (alas, not always clear) lines are crossed. Given, then, the interpretive ambiguities of the ABA’s code of ethics, the best one could say, from the perspective of those who wish to use recordings to attract birds, is that (genuine scientific work notwithstanding, of course) doing so is ultimately a kind of selfish behavior that does no good (beyond the experience of pleasure in the person using the recording to attract birds) and has the potential to cause harm. And this is the sort of activity—ultimately selfish, does no good, has potential to cause harm—that, like speeding on a crowded street or skeet shooting on the village green, ought to be discouraged.

So I would say that the ABA should consider revising its ethical guidelines regarding the use of recordings to attract birds, perhaps by adding a sentence like this to the end of the current statement: When in doubt, consider the welfare of the birds and don’t use recordings in the field. Or even better, something unambiguous—something short and sweet—something like this: The ABA discourages the use of recordings to attract birds in the field.