At the beginning of this month, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology launched a new digital game that teaches people to recognize and memorize bird songs. The game uses spectrograms, which are visualizations of an audio recording. The game, called “Bird Song Hero”, spoofs the popular game “Guitar Hero” where players play along to popular rock songs on a guitar shaped controller. Mya Thomson, creative director at the Cornell Lab and developer of the innovative game, explains the benefits of multiple modes of learning. She says the spectrograms paired with the audio “reinforce each other rather than overwhelm” and help bird enthusiasts commit the songs to memory. The game has two levels, a “challenge round” where players learn the basics of recognizing the songs, and then an “ultimate round” where the bird songs become harder to distinguish and are sometimes mixed in with human whistling or toy sounds. The interactive website, which is targeted towards learners and educators, aims to advance the understanding of nature and engage people of all ages in learning about birds and protecting the planet. Thomson says they are “considering how to expand the concept into the app world” in response to all the enthusiasm the game has generated so far. Watch the tutorial video here and play the game on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.