warbleR (version 1.1.4)

querxc: Access Xeno-Canto recordings and metadata

Description

querxc downloads recordings and metadata from Xeno-Canto (http://www.xeno-canto.org/).

Usage

querxc(qword, download = FALSE, X = NULL, file.name = c("Genus", "Specific_epithet"), 
parallel = 1, path = NULL, pb = TRUE)

Arguments

qword

Character vector of length one indicating the genus, or genus and species, to query Xeno-Canto database. For example, Phaethornis or Phaethornis longirostris. (http://www.xeno-canto.org/).

download

Logical argument. If FALSE only the recording file names and associated metadata are downloaded. If TRUE, recordings are also downloaded to the working directory as .mp3 files. Default is FALSE. Note that if the recording is already in the working directory (as when the downloading process has been interrupted) it will be skipped. Hence, resuming downloading processes will not start from scratch.

X

Data frame with a 'Recording_ID' column and any other column listed in the file.name argument. Only the recordings listed in the data frame will be download (download argument is automatically set to TRUE). This can be used to select the recordings to be downloaded based on their attributes.

file.name

Character vector indicating the tags (or column names) to be included in the sound file names (if download = TRUE). Several tags can be included. If NULL only the Xeno-Canto recording identification number ("Recording_ID") is used. Default is c("Genus", "Specific_epithet"). Note that recording id is always used (whether or not is listed by users) to avoid duplicated names.

parallel

Numeric. Controls whether parallel computing is applied when downloading mp3 files. It specifies the number of cores to be used. Default is 1 (i.e. no parallel computing). Might not work in Windows OS.

path

Character string containing the directory path where the sound files are located. If NULL (default) then the current working directory is used.

pb

Logical argument to control progress bar. Default is TRUE. Note that progress bar is only used when parallel = 1.

Value

If X is not provided the function returns a data frame with the following recording information: recording ID, Genus, Specific epithet, Subspecies, English name, Recordist, Country, Locality, Latitude, Longitude, Vocalization type, Audio file, License, URL, Quality, Time, Date. Sound files in .mp3 format are downloaded into the working directory if download = TRUE or if X is provided; a column indicating the names of the downloaded files is included in the output data frame.

Details

This function queries for avian vocalization recordings in the open-access online repository Xeno-Canto (http://www.xeno-canto.org/). It can return recordings metadata or download the associated sound files.

Examples

## Not run: 
# # First create empty folder
# setwd(tempdir())
# 
# #search without downloading
# df1 <- querxc(qword = "Phaethornis anthophilus", download = FALSE)
# View(df1)
# 
# #downloading files
# querxc(qword = "Phaethornis anthophilus", download = TRUE)
# #check this folder!!
# getwd()
# ## End(Not run)