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Category: Aves (birds)
Posted on: March 31, 2009 5:59 PM, by Greg Laden
Scientists have reported a strange twist in the tale of Europe's harbinger of spring the Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus. In a dramatic discovery, returning cuckoos have been heard and filmed calling with a highly distinctive variation of the normal call. The new call is best described as "Ooo-Cuck, Ooo-Cuck".
Life ScienceTrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/104653
Comments
Sounds like an audio edit to me. I can hear something very much like the end of the decay of the standard call after the "new" call ends. That and the decay to silence of the new bird call just doesn't sound right. I could be wrong but it sounds more like someone who was ok but not very good at sound editing put this one together.
Posted by: Robert S. | March 31, 2009 6:30 PM
(I wonder if it is the BLI April Fools Joke. .. but don't tell anybody, let's see how many other people fall for it)
Posted by: Greg Laden | March 31, 2009 6:47 PM
There are in fact two calls: one with regular pitch but "ooo-cuck", in the early part of the video, and the other one, "cuck-ooo", with falling pitch!!! I'm a musicologist! You must believe me! (At least till tomorrow.)
Posted by: Ben Breuer | March 31, 2009 6:51 PM