Birdwatchers are called "birdwatchers"; British Dave Langlois (London, 73), a former nature ranger in the United Kingdom, calls himself a "birdlistener", a person who listens to birds. Author of the book Los cantos de las aves. The forgotten choir (Editorial Tundra), this ornithologist lives today between Asturias and Extremadura precisely to be closer to these virtuosos of the music of nature.
Question. In his book he includes a classification of the 20 best songbirds in Spain in which he places the blackbird and the nightingale in the first two positions. Why?
Answer. For me, the blackbird is like Bach and the nightingale like Beethoven. The blackbird is the sinuous oboe melodies of a Bach cantata or mass, a perfect execution. And then there's the fury of the nightingale, which is like one of Beethoven's last quartets.
Q. In the case of the nightingale, he assures that it has 150 to 230 different types of song. Isn't it?
A. The nightingale has more than a thousand notes, more than a thousand syllables in its song. And it doesn't happen again. In April or May, you can listen for a whole hour to the nightingale that does not repeat, its singing is always a little different. The nightingale is a bird with an infinity of phrases and the blackbird is a bird with a phrase that varies without limit.
Q. Have humans forgotten to listen to birds?
A. Having to explain why listening to birdsong seems counterintuitive. If it were pure mathematics or particle physics, which is very beautiful but complex, I would understand. But this is very easy, all that is required is to listen for four months of the year. People don't do it today, they don't do it. It is as if the paintings of geniuses of painting, such as Vermeer, for example, were hung in the street and people did not stop to look at them. This is important, because you do not protect what you do not know how to appreciate.
Q. Why do birds sing?
A. Although there are exceptions, it is usually the males who sing to impress the females. It's a way of saying: look how I've learned the music of the species, I'm also ready to find food or defend the territory. The female expects a cognitively prowess male and singing is a test.
Q. And what does this have to do with infidelity?
A. It is essential, singing can be understood as a constant fight against infidelity, because today we know that in the nests there are many eggs that are from different males. When a male has a perfect song, there will be no eggs of others in his nest. But if it loosens, the female will look for another to have a better chance of passing on her genes.
Q. What is the Beau Geste effect?
A. Beau Geste is a soldier from a story by P. C. Wren who is left alone in a fort, with all his comrades dead. He is surrounded by enemy fighters, but places the bodies of the other soldiers over the wall and fires his rifles in turns to make it appear that they are many. In this way, he manages not to be attacked and survives. If a bird moves through its territory making songs with variations, an intruder will also believe that there are many more and they will go elsewhere. But then there are other males who are so clever that they come to the territory, hear the song of a known and tolerated neighbor, and are able to imitate it to infiltrate. The complexity between all these relationships in singing is incredible.
Q. It tells the case of a royal redstart in Badajoz that in an hour of singing imitated 51 different species.
A. Yes, we studied it. In some species such as the royal redstart, the common thrush, the starling the female is also impressed that the male is able to imitate the songs of the whole neighborhood.
The expert in bird song. PACO PAREDES
Q. How do you learn to identify bird song?
A. There are three keys to learning. First: it takes a lot of effort, with the [identification] app of the mobile phone you do not learn, because the whole device does. Second: listen at dawn, when it is easier to distinguish the songs, because the species are singing in order. And third: it is better not to start in spring, which there are too many, but now in autumn, when only a few sing, the robin, the totovía and few more. This way you dominate songs, before other resident birds join at the end of winter, such as the blackbird, the chochín, the common thrush, and then the migrants arrive in spring, which is an explosion. The songs continue in summer, but they fade little by little.
Q. Does the music of humans owe much to birds?
A. Of course. There is an example that I particularly like. Ta ta ta taaaa. Three short notes that fall a major third. This famous theme from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony closely resembles the song of the common. Copy? Chance? I don't know, but it seems impossible to me that people with an auditory acuity like Beethoven, Bach or Malher lived surrounded by these other masters of singing without being inspired by them for their works. Impossible. Beethoven wrote: "When I walk through the countryside, the match buntings, nightingales, quails and cuckoos compose with me."
Q. Beyond classical music, in the book do you give some examples of more modern songs that directly put bird songs into the music, such as Pink Floyd's Grantchester Meadows, where a lark is heard? Is there any current music that is still inspired by birds?
A. This is not done today. I like pop music today, but it's very urban.
Q. Why do you start listening to birds?
A. I started when I was 10 years old in the UK, going out to the countryside with older friends. I was the smallest, but I already showed a special ability to distinguish birds. I guess it's a gift. On the other hand, I love human music, I love avian music, and I love the relationships between the two. Interestingly, I started early in London, but it took me 11 years to hear my first nightingale, at 21. Throughout Britain, where there is a great tradition of birds, music and poetry, there are about 6,000 pairs of nightingales. However, only the region of La Vera [in Extremadura] where I live part of the year has about 50,000 couples.
Q. What is your method of listening to birds?
A. I'm an ornithocyclist, I do everything by bike. I leave at 5.30 in the morning and it's wonderful. When I am here in Asturias, I live at the foot of one of the iconic ports of the Vuelta Ciclista, in Arriondas. I start to get on the bike in total darkness, in total silence, in any case you can only hear sometimes some night bird like the nightjar. And little by little the light and the sound are in crescendo, the robin begins, I climb a little more, and you can hear the blackbird, the common thrush, the chochín, the warblers. I keep going up, the light grows and more and more songs join the party.
Q. What do you feel when the songs fade away in summer and won't come back until the following spring?
A. For me it's always a bit sad.
Q. What still amazes you most about birdsong song?
A. When birds began singing 60 million years ago, they emitted a simple squawk. To defend its territory a dog makes wow wow and that's it, where it comes from is incredible complexity of the song of birds today, this fascinates me. The beauty of singing is a mystery.
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