Bill Oddie literally answered the call of nature when he turned bird chirps into tweets.
On Tuesday morning, the comedian and ornithologist teamed up with ZSL London Zoo head birdkeeper Adrian Wallis at the zoo’s aviary. The pair took advantage of the increased activity due to the beginning of migration season to interpret and tweet the calls of the birds.
“Every bird has a bit of a vocabulary. They have seven different areas of sound, and they will all have meaning. It might be a young bird asking for food, or a bird saying ‘this is my territory’,” Oddie said, according to the U.K. Press Association (UKPA).
He posted the interpretations on his own Twitter feed, along with recordings of the calls so toucan hear them for yourself:
“Very territorial call from the Scarlet Chested Sunbird – protecting it’s nest”
“Here’s the Roul Roul Partridge – listen for high pitch whistling – a great way of keeping in touch in the dense jungle”
“That Red Billed Toucan was calling for a girlfriend. Sounds to me like he is shouting for some company!”
“This is the Black Naped Fruit Dove calling for breakfast!”
Oddie, who joined Twitter in December, got hooked on the community after realising there’s more to Twitter than just posting short bursts of text.
“I got a huge response, and that included little soundpieces, speeches, films, video and photographs,” he told the UKPA. “It’s a very powerful tool.”
Photo via @billoddie/Twitter
