SO: v7 (Second Timers)

MAKING BIRD CALLS 1:   Edison’s phonograph vibrated paper to make sounds.  Older phones vibrated little plastic discs to reproduce voices.

MAKING BIRD CALLS 1: We vibrate “thickened skin” to speak. This “skin” is located near the top of our trachea. You can easily see the larynx of a man, the Adam’s apple, which contains this “skin” that we vibrate to make our voices. (This “skin” is, of course, our vocal cords. For this question consider that our calling the vocal cords “skin” is correct even though technically they are much more complex than regular skin.)

MAKING BIRD CALLS 1: Birds use the syrinx to make bird calls and songs. It is located very high in their throat where the two sides of their lungs meet the trachea.

MAKING BIRD CALLS 1: The tube-tunnels in bird’s throat have window-like membranes in them that muscles move in and out of the air flow so they’ll vibrate. It’s a little like when you hold a piece of paper out of a car window.

MAKING BIRD CALLS 1:  Sometimes there’s a balloon-like structure–the osseous bulla–attached to the tube-tunnels (the bronchi) to make sounds like the peeping of little chicks. Pretty funny!

MAKING BIRD CALLS 2:   Bird calls from the syrinx and its add-on features can get pretty wild.  Oftentimes these syrinx skin membranes are attached to super-speed tendons–the fastest on earth.

MAKING BIRD CALLS 2:   Super-speed muscles are also used for a rattlesnake’s rattle shaking and an oyster toadfish’s swim bladder’ vibrations. These tiny super-muscles can pump out 400 pulses per second and produce the amazing trills and rapid sound changes you hear in some bird calls.

MAKING BIRD CALLS 2:   The pulsated sounds that birds make can be fast. They can flip on and off in a couple thousandths of a second! Some birds can sing the number of notes on a bagpipe in a single second!

MAKING BIRD CALLS 2:   Birds can also make two entirely different and very complex sounds at the same time.  Just as a pianist’s hands can play two entirely different complex melodies,  many bird songs are complex duets between both sides of their syrinx.  Unbelievable!

MAKING BIRD CALLS 2:   Birds can also expand and contract different parts of their throats and use one or more parts of their lung air sacs to produce wild and beautiful overtones and whistles which add to their calls.  Making bird songs is mind-numbingly complex–sometimes producing the effects of a full orchestra.