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Warbler Rainbird
“And to another branch he
repeats his song,
Crispy and clear as the
light of dawn,
And if trees are not
enough and the streets
Are wider than the field,
on cable or antenna be perches,
And sings still the song
of his ancestors.
Shouldn’t I wake up with a
happy heart
And spare a tree and two
for his art?”
When you have a garden around your house you would
know if it’s already sunrise when the birds start singing in the trees.
Meantime the sun seeps through the foliage and hedges, and sparkles on the
dewdrops clinging on them. The lawn comes alive, flooded with sunlight. Its many tenants – crickets, slugs,
earthworm, caterpillars, and even frogs wake up.
Soon more
birds come around. Their songs begin to
take shape and form: cadence, pitch, and
melody – all these help us in identifying the birds without seeing them. One
advantage of being surrounded by a garden is that the resonance of sound
heightens every note and even projects it with a ventriloquist effect that
makes it difficult to be traced. What a contrast between the sounds we hear at
sunrise with that in the darkness of night before! In the latter we are
entertained by the unending fiddling of crickets that lulls us to sleep. Now it
is a melodious wake up call.
But one
morning as I listened intently to the concert of the warblers, finally pinning
down their whereabouts. Soon enough one posed, perched on a terminal branch
overlooking the garden and calling for its mate.
Meticulously I
transcribed its song in alphabets and soon realized it was actually
communicating. But putting the syllables together did not mean anything to humans.
To transcribe them into music would take a composer to do just that. I could
only pick up the melody that seems to be the theme of any composition.
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Song of the warbler Common Tailor Bird (Orthotomus atrogularis rabori Parkes)
Tag-wa-tee-e-e-e-et, tag- wa- tee-e-e-e-et, tag-wa- tee-e-e-e-et,
(Refrain)
(Refrain)
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If one
analyzes Beethoven’s Pastoral or Peer Gynt’s Morning
he will certainly find close association and similar pattern of their notes
with those occurring in nature. Drums and thunder, stream and flute, cows mooing
and horn or oboe, raindrops and castanets, cricket fiddling and violin - are
easy to recognize and appreciate.
But there are
sounds too faint to recognize as music. Such is the music of the hummingbird,
the world’s smallest bird. Take the sound of whales in the deep ocean.
Once I
saw a pipit (Remember the song?) in our farm lot. Its deep
high pitch call could hardly penetrate the foliage and humid habagat air. Its source seems very far
that you would think it is coming from the other side of a solid wall. I saw
and heard it as it sipped the nectar of Heliconia
flowers. These banana-like plants are
also known as Lobster’s Claws and Birds of Paradise. It was a rare sight. The bird hovers like a dragonfly,
and darts forward and backward, inserting its long beak deep into the newly
opened flowers, its feathers matching the color of the flowers around. As it did this, it continuously uttered a deep
but sweet “chee-wee-e-e-et”.
Pandangera (fantail bird) with young
Perhaps if we plant more Heliconia and trees around that make a four-tier structure of an arboretum - annuals, shrubs, canopy trees and emergents – we may make the garden conducive to more birds. Only by simulating the natural habitats of organisms that we expect them to establish their niches or domains. Here the birds would build their nests, and as they raise their brood, their music becomes a chorus of hungry bridling and parental calls.
I have
had a number of occasions to observe other birds in the garden. The pandangera or fantail (Rhipidura javanica nitgritorquis), as
its name implies, is a dancer and singer combined. Its crispy, continuous song
and brisk movement of its tail spread like a fan, stops any passerby to full
attention.
Once in our
ancestral home in the province, I watched a pandangera
dance and sing in front of a dresser’s mirror. The following day it came
again and did the same. It was courting its own image on the mirror! This is a
sign of intelligence. Zoologists know of very few creatures that are attracted
by their own image, treating it like their own kind. Among these is the
orangutan.
Others
birds include the swift. The smaller ones are pygmy swiftlets (Collocalia troglodytes), while the
glossy and larger species are Collocalia
esculenta marginata). When they come, they sit on a Meralco wire at
exactly an arm’s length apart so that they appear in equidistant formation.
They sit silently, eyeing at potential preys below. And once they start swooping on flies and
other insects you could hear them uttering short and distant sounds like birds freed from captivity.
In an
aviary during feeding time, one is met by a cacophony of sounds like an
orchestra rehearsing without the baton master. Imagine sounds like those of a
trotting turkey, Guinea fowl taking off from the brooding basket, doves
romantically in pairs, ducks and geese impatient at getting their share, uneasy
native chicken (labuyo). Truly it is
only in the wild that we hear true birdsongs.
Outside
the aviary a flock of house sparrows came down chirping. Don’t ask them to
choose between food and freedom. Domestication has changed many things. Even if
they have defied domestication, they have learned to live with man wherever he
goes, on the countryside or in the metropolis. While you can hand-feed doves
and pigeons, house sparrows will eat only when you have turned you back on them.
For birds in general, I suppose that it is freedom
that gives true meaning in their songs.
Peer into a caged wild pigeon, a Philippine
turtle dove (Streptopelia bitorquata
dusumieri). The bird is silent, its round eyes empty. Wait for its song,
then when it is time to leave, it expands its breast and sends deep booming
sounds. This is the other side of a
warbler’s song.
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Fantail bird in Indian rupee, and New Zealand dollar
“How
exciting it is to be interconnected with nature,” says a young naturalist. Yes, it is indeed the key to the conservation
of our environment. It is the very source of inspiration to express our talents
– to paint, write and compose music. It links us to our Creator.
I invite
songwriters and music enthusiasts to explore the music of the birds and nature
as a whole as an alternative to pop and rock music. We can explore the many
things nature has given us to enjoy life in peace and harmony. While only very
few are geniuses in music and in the other arts, all of us can be scholars of
nature, learning and enjoying her bounty and ways. ~ House sparrow chirping while taking a bath.
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