Birdsong

Vivaldi is the composer most thought of as the one that imitated birdsong in his musical compositions, especially in Spring – The Four Seasons, where he used a flute concerto to imitate the song of the Goldfinch. The songs and calls of larks, cuckoos, swans, linnets, orioles, magpies, etc., have all been the inspiration for many composers down the years.

Some recent research by French scientists using AI to analyse 100,000 songs from 3,000 bird species revealed they all consisted of 8 fundamental types of sound that are used in various combinations to produce the myriad of trills, whistles and harmonies that birds use.  

Listening to (some) bird’s songs has long been recognised as having many therapeutic benefits. 

Here’s some links to some favourite local birdsongs to help cope with our grey winter days …

Grey Shrike-thrush                           Grey Butcherbird                            Golden Whistler

 

Superb Fairy-wren                     Gang-gang Cockatoo                     Brown Thornbill

Willie Wagtail                             Eastern Whipbird                           Lewin's Honeyeater

         Grey Fantail                           Australian Magpie                       Laughing Kookaburra

There are numerous online sources for downloading birdsong. Many current bird apps have excellent birdsong features to help recognize which bird goes with which song. Be careful but, many birds, not just the Lyrebird, are good imitators of other birds and many have different calls for different reasons – territorial, courting, communicating, alarm, etc.