What Bird Has the Coolest Song?

BirdNote^®

What Bird Has the Coolest Song?

Written by Adam Sedgley

This is BirdNote.
There are more than 10,000 species of birds in the world, and each has a unique song.  We recently reached out to our fans on Facebook and our Weekly Preview email list to ask, “Which bird makes the coolest sound?”
Over 50 species were nominated, from the comical Willow Ptarmigan of Alaska and western Canada [Willow Ptarmigan] to the melodic Spot-breasted Oriole, a bird of Central America introduced to the Miami area in the 1940s [Spot-breasted Oriole].
Australian BirdNote fans placed two species in contention: the Eastern Whipbird [Eastern Whipbird] and — arguably the world’s best mimic — the Superb Lyrebird [Superb Lyrebird].
The Tui (pronounced TOO-ee), a honeyeater from New Zealand with two voice-boxes, garnered a nomination [Tui].
Tropical birds our listeners nominated as dandy songsters are the startling Capuchinbird (pronounced CAP-ooh-chin-burd) [Capuchinbird] and the Montezuma Oropendola [Montezuma Oropendola].   
So which bird received the most votes [for making the coolest sound?] The Common Raven landed at number three [Common Raven], with the Western Meadowlark just ahead in second place [Western Meadowlark].
 But with twice as many votes to firmly establish itself as number one:                 [Swainson’s Thrush], the Swainson’s Thrush. [Swainson’s Thrush]
Do you agree? Come to birdnote.org to cast your vote! [Swainson’s Thrush]
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Sounds of the birds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Willow Ptarmigan, Common Raven and Swainson’s Thrush recorded by G.A. Keller; Western Meadowlark by W.R. Fish and G.A. Keller; Spot-breasted Oriole by G.B Reynard; Tui by M.D. Medler; Capuchinbird by B.J. O’Shea; and  Montezuma Oropendola by C. Duncan.         
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2010 Tune In to Nature.org           August 2010

ID#        sound-10-2010-08-27          sound-10