singing in the rain
Dec. 6th, 2003 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eHow utterly wonderful!
As I write this there is a very cute butcher bird (about the size of a pigeon) just outside my door, about 3 steps away from me, singing its little heart out. The rain is falling quite heavily, but the bird is warm, dry and comfy perched on my balcony rail, sheltered from the wet by the balcony's roof. The warbling bird sits there in full view of me and can obviously see me as clearly as I see it. It seems to be enjoying the music I'm playing (Enya) because it quietens down in the pause between tracks, then fires up into loud, joyous song when the next track starts.
Wow! The 2 young 'uns have now shown up and are sitting on the balcony rail too, but unlike their parent they're not singing those incredibly varied and sweet melodies -- just their harsh, insistent, 'feed me' squarks. The parent has stopped singing. I can almost see a disappointed acceptance that the period of fun is over.
OK. They've all taken off now, presumably to find more food for the hungry adolescents.
How amazing was that! It lasted about quarter of an hour in all. Pity I didn't take a picture. But the butcher birds around here are very tame, so I'll get a picture in the future and post it.
Butcher birds are extremely intelligent. They have amazingly varied songs. Even when it sounds like they have repeated a passage, if you listen closely you'll generally notice they're making many subtle variations on themes. They spend a long time learning and developing their repertoire. I think that is what this bird was doing: practicing and learning musical tricks from the music I was playing... until the children arrived with their demands for food.
Butcher birds are predators and get their name from the rather gruesome habit of storing their dead victims (large insects, small lizards, other baby birds, etc) by impaling them on twigs or thorns for later consumption.
As I write this there is a very cute butcher bird (about the size of a pigeon) just outside my door, about 3 steps away from me, singing its little heart out. The rain is falling quite heavily, but the bird is warm, dry and comfy perched on my balcony rail, sheltered from the wet by the balcony's roof. The warbling bird sits there in full view of me and can obviously see me as clearly as I see it. It seems to be enjoying the music I'm playing (Enya) because it quietens down in the pause between tracks, then fires up into loud, joyous song when the next track starts.
Wow! The 2 young 'uns have now shown up and are sitting on the balcony rail too, but unlike their parent they're not singing those incredibly varied and sweet melodies -- just their harsh, insistent, 'feed me' squarks. The parent has stopped singing. I can almost see a disappointed acceptance that the period of fun is over.
OK. They've all taken off now, presumably to find more food for the hungry adolescents.
How amazing was that! It lasted about quarter of an hour in all. Pity I didn't take a picture. But the butcher birds around here are very tame, so I'll get a picture in the future and post it.
Butcher birds are extremely intelligent. They have amazingly varied songs. Even when it sounds like they have repeated a passage, if you listen closely you'll generally notice they're making many subtle variations on themes. They spend a long time learning and developing their repertoire. I think that is what this bird was doing: practicing and learning musical tricks from the music I was playing... until the children arrived with their demands for food.
Butcher birds are predators and get their name from the rather gruesome habit of storing their dead victims (large insects, small lizards, other baby birds, etc) by impaling them on twigs or thorns for later consumption.