The Secret Of The Syrinx: Why Birdsongs Sound Like They Do
NPR
Saturday, May 30, 2015
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Birds can sound like sump-pumps, outboard motors or crazed squirrels, but of course their songs can also be sublime. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Ray Brown from the show Talkin' Birds.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Time now for some "Talkin' Birds."
(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO SHOW, "TALKIN' BIRDS")
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It's a bird show. I like that. I love birds.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Ray Brown's "Talkin' Birds."
SIMON: Yep, Ray Brown, our friend of the finely feathered and host of "Talkin' Birds" joins us now from Boston. Ray, thanks very much for being with us.
RAY BROWN: You're welcome. Thank you, Scott. Good morning.
SIMON: You've sent us quite an array of bird songs. I'm going - we're going to play a little sampler.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRD SONGS)
SIMON: I mean, it sounds like it's out of a "Looney Tunes" cartoon.
BROWN: That last one, yeah, kind of like a cartoon squirrel there - leach's storm petrel, a small seabird. And we also heard the wood thrush, a relative of the robin...
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRD SONG)
BROWN: ...That beautiful flute-like song. And that really strange one at the beginning, the American bittern, is a type of heron. They also call it the thunder pumper.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRD SONG)
BROWN: And when you hear that sound, you can understand why.
SIMON: How do they do that?
BROWN: Well, you know, birds - most birds produce sound by exhaling air through a two-part voice box known as a syrinx. And because it has two parts to it, left and right, many birds can produce two sounds at once so they can make very complex songs and effectively harmonize with themselves.
But by the way, one of the reasons that many birds can sing so loudly is, you know, despite their small size, is that almost all of the air they exhale is used by that syrinx. So in contrast, humans only use about 2 percent of the air that we exhale to produce sound. So if we were as efficient as they are, we could make a phone call across town. We would just - could just yell out the window, no phone needed.
SIMON: Two - only 2 percent - I mean, even Renee Fleming?
BROWN: She might be up there at 3 percent, but I think the rest of us are around 2 percent. (Laughter).
SIMON: I - there - we have another sound coming up which I understand - utterly amazing. We've all heard of mockingbirds. They imitate the sounds that surround them. But you have a recording of someone (laugher) I'll refer to as the Kevin Spacey of birds, I mean, the most amazing feathered mimic. This is the super lyrebird.
BROWN: The superb lyrebird, yeah, from Australia.
SIMON: Oh, I'm sorry.
BROWN: Yeah.
BROWN: The superb lyrebird from Australia, and he can imitate - well, let's just listen.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRD SONG, LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Oh, my - that is amazing.
BROWN: The chainsaw - how hard could it be?
SIMON: Oh, good - so he's just heard that - he or she has just heard that sound?
BROWN: Probably he, yeah. The chainsaw part was from, actually, a bird that was in a zoo and heard the panda enclosure being built and got those chainsaw sounds. Birds that are capable of these complex songs find it to their advantage to have the most complex sounds that they can make because females apparently like that and would tend to choose one who can make more complex sounds than his rival might do.
SIMON: Oh, I wish I'd known this years ago.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: I don't know if that...
BROWN: They're still working on whether that work goes for humans or not. I mean, I'm not sure about that.
SIMON: Ray Brown is the host of the radio show "Talkin' Birds." It's on live Sunday morning, but you can get it online after you've listened to WEEKEND EDITION Sunday. Ray, thanks so much for being with us.
BROWN: My pleasure as always, Scott. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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