As a postscript to my paragraph yesterday on the hummingbird conflicts in our back yard I have posted a video below on seagull communication. After witnessing hummingbirds warring in the gardenI was left wondering about how fighting is such a waste of precious time and energy in the hummingbird community. This morning I watched this video about gull communication that ends with the statement that communication on territoriality is favored in evolution over conflict. Phew. Maybe we humans can learn from the movenpicks. (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.)
Showing posts with label bird song. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bird song. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Why Birds Vocalize
When you're training as an actor, you analyze the script and chart what motivates your character to say and do the things they do. "What's my motivation?" is the actor's cliché. The process always irked me because I think sometimes humans move in mysterious ways and we don't always know why we do things, no matter how much we analyze our motives. I liked to work with my actor's intuition rather than try to justify everything with the left side of the brain.
Why do birds sing? Well, most of it's about lurve and protecting and defining the home front. Male birds use their voices to tell mates they are lively and healthy and worthy suitors. They announce their presence to other males to keep them at a distance, defining territory with sound maps.
Bird calls are simpler vocalizations with many functions that ornithologists are still studying. One of the motivations behind calls is to keep in contact with mates, families, and flocks. Barry Kent MacKay in his book Bird Sounds: How and Why Birds Call, Chatter, and Screech, says that contact calls can help birds keep together in dark or foggy weather, keep the chicks close, or confuse predators. I am moved by his comment on contact calls: "Possibly for some species, it is a means of reassuring themselves that they are together and well, within a hostile world."
When you see a flock of birds, try to imagine what their calls are saying to each other. Why not observe humans and try to analyze our own contact calls. Perhaps twitter and texting are the new media for human contact calls. We enjoy the pleasure of checking in with one another, making sure we are nearby, safe, and not alone. It's the vocal version of comfort food. Humans crave contact on a continuum that depends on what kind of person you are (introvert/extrovert), what time of day it is (morning person?), and many other factors. We crave eye contact, physical contact, and vocal contact. One's psyche and spirit thrive on managing these kinds of interactions.
Why do birds sing? Well, most of it's about lurve and protecting and defining the home front. Male birds use their voices to tell mates they are lively and healthy and worthy suitors. They announce their presence to other males to keep them at a distance, defining territory with sound maps.
Bird calls are simpler vocalizations with many functions that ornithologists are still studying. One of the motivations behind calls is to keep in contact with mates, families, and flocks. Barry Kent MacKay in his book Bird Sounds: How and Why Birds Call, Chatter, and Screech, says that contact calls can help birds keep together in dark or foggy weather, keep the chicks close, or confuse predators. I am moved by his comment on contact calls: "Possibly for some species, it is a means of reassuring themselves that they are together and well, within a hostile world."
When you see a flock of birds, try to imagine what their calls are saying to each other. Why not observe humans and try to analyze our own contact calls. Perhaps twitter and texting are the new media for human contact calls. We enjoy the pleasure of checking in with one another, making sure we are nearby, safe, and not alone. It's the vocal version of comfort food. Humans crave contact on a continuum that depends on what kind of person you are (introvert/extrovert), what time of day it is (morning person?), and many other factors. We crave eye contact, physical contact, and vocal contact. One's psyche and spirit thrive on managing these kinds of interactions.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
La Paruline Jaune
There are some conventional words we use to imitate the sound of rain and running water: pitter-patter, dribble, trickle, drip, drop, burble, and so on. As I was waking up this morning, listening to the sound of the rain I thought about combining some of those words to create new words for rain: drickle, burkle, trip, trop, spurkle, etc. I wonder how a Spanish-speaking person listening to the rain in Spain would mimic the sounds of the dripping water.
As I study birdsong, I'm intrigued with the phonetics and onomatopoeic words we use to transcribe and vocalize birdsong. It is often different in different languages. For example, in English roosters say "cockle doodle doo!" and in French they say "cocorico!" This arbitrary quality used to vex me as a child because I liked language to be precise. I wanted to know if a word was correct or incorrect. In this case, there is room for interpretation.
In French, the yellow warbler is "la paruline jaune." In English, it says "Sweet, sweet, sweet, I'm so sweeeet!", or something along those lines. In French, it says "Soui-soui-soui-soui!" Some birds are called by their onomatopoeic tags, like Chickadee, or Whip-poor-will. Imagine if all birds were called by names that mimicked their call. A duck would be a Quack and and goose would be a Honk. In English, we use the word "hummingbird", using a word that imitates the sound of the tiny bird's wings. In Spanish, the bird is called "beija-flor", which means "flower kisser". How appropriate!
I would love to find the words in languages other than English that are used to describe and name birds and birdsong. Please put them in the comments below if you find them. I would also love you to create your own short bird song sound poem to share with us at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Garden. You could write in in linear form, or in a cloud or "Wordle" format, or even in the form of a bird. Now how about doing the same thing with the words you make up to describe the sound of the rain in Vancouver. If you bring your poems to the workshops and performances we can use them as part of the score. Yahoo!--(as they say where I come from).
As I study birdsong, I'm intrigued with the phonetics and onomatopoeic words we use to transcribe and vocalize birdsong. It is often different in different languages. For example, in English roosters say "cockle doodle doo!" and in French they say "cocorico!" This arbitrary quality used to vex me as a child because I liked language to be precise. I wanted to know if a word was correct or incorrect. In this case, there is room for interpretation.
In French, the yellow warbler is "la paruline jaune." In English, it says "Sweet, sweet, sweet, I'm so sweeeet!", or something along those lines. In French, it says "Soui-soui-soui-soui!" Some birds are called by their onomatopoeic tags, like Chickadee, or Whip-poor-will. Imagine if all birds were called by names that mimicked their call. A duck would be a Quack and and goose would be a Honk. In English, we use the word "hummingbird", using a word that imitates the sound of the tiny bird's wings. In Spanish, the bird is called "beija-flor", which means "flower kisser". How appropriate!
I would love to find the words in languages other than English that are used to describe and name birds and birdsong. Please put them in the comments below if you find them. I would also love you to create your own short bird song sound poem to share with us at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Garden. You could write in in linear form, or in a cloud or "Wordle" format, or even in the form of a bird. Now how about doing the same thing with the words you make up to describe the sound of the rain in Vancouver. If you bring your poems to the workshops and performances we can use them as part of the score. Yahoo!--(as they say where I come from).
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