Microbit Bird Song

Playing around with sounds on the microbit, I had an idea for a dawn chorus kind of thing. Originally it was an example using robot beeps and boops and R2D2-like chirps but I have settled on a slightly easier to understand version using just words to sound a little like birds in the trees.

Code

We can flash this code to several microbits and use the buttons to pick a different "bird" for each one then let them hoot and squawk away to themselves.

I added a sound check to perhaps allow each microbit to listen to the others and in the way that birds do, if they hear someone else cheeping nearby will increase their territorial cheeping to drown them out.

from microbit import *
import random
import speech

display.show(Image.DUCK)
sleep(1000)

# bird calls
cuckoo = ["cuckoo"]
tweet = ["tweet", "tweet tweet"]
cheep_cheep = ["cheep", "cheep cheep"]
hoot = ["hoo"]
twit_twoo = ["twit twoo", "two hoo", "hoo"]
parrot = ["polly want a cracker", "pretty polly", "squawk!"]

birds = [cuckoo, tweet, cheep_cheep, hoot, twit_twoo, parrot]
bird = 0

sound_threshold = 100  # 255 max
microphone.sound_level()  # discard first

while True:

    if button_a.was_pressed():
        bird = max(0, bird - 1)

    if button_b.was_pressed():
        bird = min(bird + 1, len(birds))

    if bird == len(birds):
        calls = random.choice(birds)
        call = random.choice(calls)
    else:
        calls = birds[bird]
        call = random.choice(calls)

    display.set_pixel(2, 2, 9)
    speech.say(call)
    display.set_pixel(2, 2, 0)

    # listen to surrounding noise
    if microphone.sound_level() >= sound_threshold:
        time_to_next_call = 500
    else:
        time_to_next_call = random.randint(500, 5000)

    sleep(time_to_next_call)