BirdNote; Voices and Vocabularies - Exquisite Thrush Songs

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Voices & Vocabularies: Exquisite Thrush Songs

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[Wood Thrush song]

Some believe the song of the Wood Thrush to be the most beautiful bird song in North America.

[Wood Thrush song]

Others select the song of the Hermit Thrush.

[Hermit Thrush song;]

Still others name the singing of the Swainson’s Thrush.

[Swainson’s Thrush]

So how do thrushes create such fine music? The answer is that the birds have a double voice box. Bird song emanates from a complex structure, unique to birds, called the syrinx. Syrinx is also the Greek word for the musical instrument we call panpipes, which have multiple pipes. It’s a fitting name for this essential part of a bird’s vocal anatomy. Because, like panpipes, birds have two separate pipes to sing with. A fine singer like a thrush can voice notes independently and simultaneously from each half of its syrinx, notes which blend brilliantly as ethereal, harmonious tones.

[Hermit Thrush song]

Fortunately for us, the results are lovely and haunting.

[Wood Thrush song]

###

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Song of the Wood Thrush [176144] recorded by G.A. Keller; song of Hermit Thrush [111136] by T.G. Sander; song of the Swainson’s Thrush [133353] recorded by G.A. Keller.

Ambient recorded by C. Peterson M III T 48.

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org June 2018 Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# thrush-02-2013-06-12 thrush-02

Remarkable animation of singing from each bronchus separately. http://www.indiana.edu/~songbird/multi/songproduction_index.html

Nice essay on wonders of thrush song: http://www.massaudubon.org/sanctuary/features.php?id=50

More good material, including recent work on use of structures other than syrinx that may be essential in bird song http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdcommunication.html