The Northern Cardinal, Barn Owl, American Robin, Indigo Bunting, House Wren, Peregrine Falcon, Blue Jay, House Finch, Red-Billed Woodpecker and the always-cute Ruby-throated Hummingbird are just a few of the more than 800 North American bird species the Audubon Society offers on its website. With so many birds to see and hear, you probably don’t want something like untreated hearing loss getting in the way.
Luckily, in addition to your birding guidebooks and binoculars, hearing aids make an excellent addition to any avid birdwatcher’s toolkit.
How Hearing Aids Help
Hearing aids help you catch each caw, hoot and chirp in a couple of ways:
- Improving binaural hearing. Your ability to tell where a sound is coming from depends on how both ears work together. Your brain compares tiny differences in timing, called interaural time difference (ITD), and small changes in loudness, called interaural level difference (ILD), to pinpoint direction. Hearing loss interferes with these cues, making it harder to locate a bird calling from nearby trees in Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park. Wearing hearing aids in both ears, called binaural hearing aids, gives your brain the information it needs to identify where sounds originate so you can quickly focus on the right spot.
- Frequency shifting. Many bird calls, with the exception of a few low, raspy species, sit high on the frequency range. Unfortunately, high-frequency sounds are often the first to go with hearing loss. Hearing aids bring these higher-frequency sounds into a range that is within reach, making it easier to recognize the distinct calls of different birds.
The ability to hear birdsong and find its origin is a crucial part of placing the next bird on your “seen” list. Luckily, hearing aids are up to the task.
Connect With Bluetooth®
If you like to study different bird calls, whether on the Audubon Society’s page or another source, connect your headphones to your smart device via its Bluetooth setting. By streaming sound directly through your hearing aids, you can strengthen your birdcall knowledge without straining to hear.
For more information on the benefits of hearing aids or to schedule your treatment consultation, contact Hearing Center Silver Spring today.