The Secret to Singing Like a Cardinal

BirdNote®
The Secret to Singing Like a Cardinal
Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote.

Singers with a wide vocal range are thrilling to hear in concert.

    [Mariah Carey hitting the high notes in “Emotions”]

Even if you don’t have any big names touring nearby, you can find birds with impressive vocal talents — like the widespread Northern Cardinal.

    [Northern Cardinal song]

In seconds, cardinals sweep through high to low notes many times. Even a virtuoso human singer would be hard-pressed to do that.

    [Northern Cardinal song]

The secret is in the clever way cardinals use their vocal organ, called the syrinx. With the right side of their syrinx, cardinals start whistling a high note, smoothly falling in pitch. Then, without a pause in the whistle, cardinals switch to the left side of the syrinx, which they control independently, and belt out the lower notes. Here’s the song slowed down — notice how seamless the whistles are.

    [Northern Cardinal song slowed down to 1/2 speed]

Dividing their vocal range between the two parts of the syrinx helps cardinals sing complex songs rapidly. The result seems effortless — but the best musicians always do make it look easy.

    [Northern Cardinal song]

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

    [Northern Cardinal song]

This episode is sponsored in honor of Dave Goodward, by his daughter Jenna, to thank him for sharing his love of birds.

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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Northern Cardinal ML146025921 recorded by Glen Chapman.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote April 2024
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# syrinx-03-2024-04-19        syrinx-03

Reference:
https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/built-to-sing-the-syrinx-of-the-north…