Jynx!

BirdNote® 
The Jynx Bird 
Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

There’s an element of luck in birdwatching, and sometimes that luck is mostly bad.   

         [Screamin’ Jay Hawkins singing "I Put A Spell on You"]  

A birder may find a particular bird so elusive, that after many unsuccessful attempts to see it, the bird becomes a kind of “jinx bird.” Can a bird truly be equated with bad luck? Europeans centuries ago believed so, for the very word “jinx” comes directly from a bird’s name.  

The bird once called the “jynx” is the bird known today as the Eurasian Wryneck. When a wryneck, a brown and gray-toned bird about the size of a small woodpecker, is threatened at its nest-hole, it twists its head sideways like a snake and hisses. This anomalous behavior led to the wryneck being invoked in witchcraft to put a spell or a jinx on someone.  

         [Screamin’ Jay Hawkins singing "I Put A Spell on You"]  

Today, the Eurasian Wryneck seems harmless enough, although its scientific name, Jynx torquilla honors its neck-twisting, bewitching reputation.

          [Screamin’ Jay Hawkins singing "I Put A Spell on You"]  

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

###
Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Call of the Eurasian Jynx recorded by B. Veprintsev.  
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler. 
© 2016 Tune In to Nature.org  January 2014/2018/2019  & October 2025 
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# EUWR-01d-2019-01-13    EUWR-01b