Lesser necklaced laughingthrush
I’m trying to do a short series on birdsong, using some of the many hundreds of recordings I’ve made around Chiang Mai.
All the audio clips here are my own recordings.
In a previous post I gave some examples of how birds use rhythm in their songs.
The most obvious characteristic of most songs, though, is the melody.
The sweetness of a common dawn– Dews, vapours, and the melody of birds Wordsworth
Mary Oliver captures the way birdsong transcends everyday surroundings:
Every spring
I hear the thrush singing
in the glowing woods
he is only passing through.
His voice is deep,
then he lifts it until it seems
to fall from the sky.
I am thrilled.
I am grateful.Mary Oliver
Pliny noted that “every bird has a number of notes peculiar to itself; for they do not, all of them, have the same, but each, certain melodies of its own.” He did, however, also maintain that the nightingale is “the only bird the notes of which are modulated in accordance with the strict rules of musical science.” Without wanting to take anything away from the nightingale, I can think of a few other birds who might wish to object.
More recently, scientists have pored over the purposes for which birds make their songs melodious.
“Research shows that melodies help stimulate females to court, copulate, and reproduce.” And they have no need to put Barry White on the CD player.
You can often identify a bird by the melody of its call (presumably they can, too). Here are some distinctive melodies that are quite short and simple.
Abbott’s babbler has a simple rising call.
Here’s the rising, falling call of the Orange headed thrush.
Sometimes a bird will use the same melody in different pitches. This is the Indian cuckoo.
Many birds have calls with different melodies. This Rufous backed sibia moves from one to another.
As does the Spectacled barwing.
The difference in calls can often help us separate similar species. Compare the two calls of the Brown-cheeked fulvetta with the single call of the Grey-cheeked fulvetta.
Other birds have melodies that are not so simple. Here are two eerie examples:
Bay owl
Wedge tailed pigeon
Many birds sing using traditional scales similar to those in human music, others, like the Wedge tailed pigeon show scant regard for the rigidity of pentatonic or chromatic scales.
One of my handful of favourite birds is the Puff-throated babbler. A nondescript little fellow, he has a cheerful song that a birder friend compared to that of an out of tune messenger boy. It often starts with the full song (20 to 30 notes) and then gives shorter versions. Here’s one I recorded this morning.
Not surprisingly, many scientists have understood melody as useful for mate attraction. “Some of their findings dredged up by Perplexity, seem a little dubious. Female birds use song not just to locate conspecific males, but also to discriminate among them, favoring those whose songs demonstrate higher quality and complexity”. Really? None of the many birds I’ve recorded with a simple melodic song seem to have shown any interest in making their output more complex.
“Melodic songs also function in territory defense, signaling to rival males the presence and quality of the territory holder. More complex or challenging melodies can deter intruders by indicating the resident male's fitness and ability to defend his space.” Again, this might be true for those songbirds that have complex songs but for huge number that don’t might sing louder or longer but expecting them to come up with a more complex song might be like asking Mick Jagger to do a Bach Cantata.
Some birds are true composers, some improvising, others constructing variations on the melodies they use as themes. I’ll get on to these in another post sometime.
Thank you for these!!!
Loved the Indian Cuckoo and the Bay owl 🤍