A Tree Alive with Song - European Starlings

BirdNote^®

A Tree Alive with Song

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

Imagine hearing a tree alive with song!

It’s a cool, sunny day in March, and you’re walking down a path bordered by dense evergreens. Suddenly you hear this: [European Starlings hidden yet singing in a tree]. 

Whistles and trills; squeaks, rattles and gurgles – wavering in intensity but with no clear pattern – like the mingled sounds of an orchestra of birds tuning up. 

[European Starlings hidden yet singing in a tree].

You look around -- not a bird in sight. Just the rich, dark green of cedars and firs. Perplexing. But strangely wonderful. A mystery of nature perhaps, but one calling to be solved.

As the unseen orchestra continues tuning [continue Starlings] you narrow down its location to a single evergreen. It’s a tree alive with sound and song.

[European Starlings hidden yet singing in a tree]. 

Peering deep within the dense boughs, you edge nearer the varied music. Your approach surprises a squirrel foraging on the ground. The squirrel leaps into the tree, instantly startling a large flock of birds. There must be 50 of them, rising into the air, their dark feathers tinged with iridescent purple and green. [sound of flock flying out!] An orchestra of starlings rehearsing for the spring breeding season.

[European Starlings hidden yet singing in a tree] 

Thank you for listening to BirdNote! Can’t always catch the show on the radio? Well, sign up to have them sent to you every week – that’s birdnote.org. I’m Mary McCann. 

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European Starlings singing from within a tree – recorded by C. Peterson.  Sony Feb06G4T1. 

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

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2013 Tune In to Nature.org  March 2013  Narrator: Mary McCann

ID#   EUST-03-2013-03-07EUST-03