Krusty the Bird
For the Birds - Avian observations from the beerfloat.calm world
Krusty the Bird – by Corliss Buenavida
You may have recently read my Nicaragua, Make Some Noise blog in which I mentioned a particular bird I would single out at some point in the future. Well in honour of this weekend being the dates for the 2025 Great Backyard Bird Count conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society its time to give this loud bird it’s due.
The species in question is the White-throated magpie-jay (Cyanocorax formosus), a large attractive bird which is easily seen (and heard) in these parts, that is near The Villa which has become beerfloat.calm central whilst I spend some winter time in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. In fact, pairs have nested in the trees on the property for many years.
The locals call them Urraca or simply translated, magpie. They are not migratory birds, instead keeping to a range on the Pacific slopes from southern Mexico to northern Costa Rica so if you live or vacation in these areas it is likely you have seen them. Although their name mentions the white throat, a lot more of the body is white underneath and mostly a soft deep blue on the back with many black highlight lines. An especially interesting feature is the feather crest on top of their heads. Their spectacular appearance and lack of similar looking birds makes them simple to identify and their gregarious group behaviours make them difficult not to notice.
But, enough about the pretty, time to talk about the annoying.
The reason they were mentioned in the previous blog is that they are one of the great noise makers in the hood. And not just one sound but a whole variety of chirps, buzzes, whistles, trills and the especially poignant junior crow caw. If most bird sounds are like human voices, then this magpie-jay’s caw is like the voice of Krusty the Clown from the Simpsons. But it is not the same single sound each time you hear it; they can manipulate their syrinx (voice box) to create multiple variations of each and every caw.
The sequence of sounds heard around here on most early (and I mean early) mornings, I equate to a singer’s vocal exercises. It starts with the very shortest and quietest of hints at a caw. If you are not awake already this will certainly go unnoticed. But it builds up gradually at about 1 second intervals, each slightly longer than the last and with a little more oomph behind it. As this continues to a ‘wake up’ volume, minor variations of tone are introduced and possibly more sustain or a little pitch change at the end of each rough note which can be either up or down this squawkers range.
So, its still dark out and I’m laying in bed thinking, ‘He’s going to move on to another tree any moment, just endure it.’ But he continues and its louder and hoarser and nerve wracking so now my thinking takes me to, ‘I should have picked up that sling shot at the corner store!’ On and on it goes – and then nothing.
‘Ahh peace, I’ll catch a bit more shut eye.’ Then it starts again, however this time it is “Roll Call”. That’s right, call and response from another bird in another tree. Now there are two of them, probably more but they have terrible counting skills so after the initial call and first response, he loses track and starts over from the beginning again. “Caw”, echoed “Caw” back. Lose track. “Caw”, “Caw” back. Lose track. “Caw”, “Caw” back. Lose track.
Some minutes later, “Caw”, “Caw” back. Lose track, then a slightly varied “Caw”, with an echoed varied “Caw” back coming from yet another location. And then there were three.
I think you can see where this is heading, to a true caw-cawphony!
So, of course, today, the one day I want to record their disarming harmonics, for you to hear, is the one day they are playing it chill. However, I know there will be a gang of them hanging out in the mango tree above my bedroom ready to rouse me at four tomorrow morning!
Squawk!!!
Corliss
beer float.calm = beerfloat.net not beerfloat.com
