Our Daily Bird 52: The Lyre Bird

(with apologies for the ad)

It's interesting to note that the 'hushed whisper' is universal to both nature documentaries and golf announcing. Is Tiger Woods as skittish as the blue-throated warbler? Is he wont to scurry off into the underbrush if startled by a loud noise, depriving us of the awe-inspiring sound of his unique mating call?

We may never know, but here's a fine example of the artform in a BBCWorldwide spot about nature's Rich Little: the lyre bird. If I had one living anywhere in my vicinity, I'd be spending a lot of time in the woods playing bits of old 1930's jazz, excerpts from the Marx Brothers, and Looney Tunes-esque sound effects. After all, who wouldn't enjoy strolling down a nature path and hearing softly in the distance, "BOOOI-OI-OI-OI-OI-NGGGGGG...why I oughta!...stooooooormy weathaaaaaaar..."?

And while it's feathers may not 'liquify the rainbow' and Australia is a long ways from the Panama Canal, there is more than a little of the lyre bird in Craig Arnold's poem,"The Invisible Birds of Central America":

The Invisible Birds of Central America

by Craig Arnold 

For Alicia

The bird who creaks like a rusty playground swing

the bird who sharpens the knife         the bird who blows

on the mouths of milk bottles         the bird who bawls like a cat

like a cartoon baby         the bird who rubs the wineglass

the bird who curlicues         the bird who quacks like a duck

but is not a duck         the bird who pinks on a jeweller's hammer

They hide behind the sunlight scattered throughout the canopy

At the thud of your feet they fall thoughtful and quiet

coming to life again only when you have passed

Perhaps they are not multiple         but one

a many-mooded trickster         whose voice is rich

and infinitely various         whose feathers

liquify the rainbow         rippling scarlet

emerald indigo         whose streaming tail

is rare as a comet's         a single glimpse of which

is all that you could wish for         the one thing

missing         to make your eyes at last feel full

to meet this wild need of yours         for wonder

Source: Poetry (October 2008).

Courtesy of The Poetry Foundation