The Bluethroat is a delightful bird which quickly endears itself to anyone fortunate enough to observe it. Although the playing time of a CD is not enough to demonstrate the full repertoire of a singing Bluethroat, the listener should gain a clear impression of this virtuoso's song from the recordings presented here: The longer you listen, the more you become aware of the seemingly endless variety of the song with it's numerous and deceptively accurate imitations of other birds' voices and even mimicry of frogs, crickets, peals of bells, and other sounds from the breeding grounds and winter quarters. Little wonder that the Sami people of Lappland call the Bluethroat "the bird of a thousand voices". These recordings of the Bluethroat's song were made with the Sony Digital System PCM 2000 (DAT-Recorder); the Red-spotted Bluethroat with a Neumann RSM 190 stereo-microphone with windshield, and the White-spotted Bluethroat with 2 Sennheiser MKH 30 microphones using the "Blümlein" technique; here too, a shield had to be used because of the strong wind.