Join BirdNote tomorrow, November 30th!
Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!
Song of the Mountains: The Brown-backed Solitaire
A simply-dressed bird with a beautiful, mysterious song.
© Amado Demesa
Brown-backed Solitaires are ordinary-looking: medium-sized, gray-brown birds. But they have one of the most melodic, complex songs in the world, ringing out year-round in high-altitude forests from Mexico to Central America.
Listen to this show in Spanish here.
Song of the Mountains: The Brown-backed Solitaire
BirdNote®
Written by Paula Vilella
Lucina Melesio: This is BirdNote.
[Brown-backed Solitaire song]
How many birds do you think are here? It sounds like a whole orchestra, but it's just just one bird: the Brown-backed Solitaire.
[Brown-backed Solitaire song]
Their appearance is quite ordinary: they are medium-sized, gray-brown birds. But they have one of the most melodic, complex songs in the world, ringing out year-round in high-altitude forests from Mexico…
[Brown-backed Solitaire song]
...to Central America...
[Brown-backed Solitaire]
Did you notice the difference between those two songs? They have different structures and durations. This is because they learn to sing differently depending on where they grow up... much like how a human language spoken across vast regions takes on dialects and accents.
Birdsong serves to mark territory, attract a mate, sound an alarm, or request food. But for Brown-backed Solitaires, their song also puts them in danger: some locals capture and cage them to keep the birds' songs for themselves.
As their name implies, they prefer solitude, so you’ll probably find one calmly perched with an upright posture on the branches of trees in forests and wetlands. Although occasionally, they may gather in small groups, even mingling with birds of other species.
For BirdNote, I'm Lucina Melesio.
###
Senior Producer: John Kessler
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. Brown-backed Solitaire ML109145 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller, Brown-backed Solitaire ML608367201 recorded by Ignacio Moreira Loera, and Brown-backed Solitaire ML345874831 recorded by Carlos Funes.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote February 2024
Narrator: Lucina Melesio
ID# BBSO-01-2024-02-06 BBSO-01Reference
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/brbsol1/cur/introduction
Paula Vilella
Writer