[Aztlan] Plaster and Echoes

[Elaine Schele]

Listeros,

Thanks Dave!!! I haven't gone to Dave's link yet to listen to the call, but
being an avid bird lover, I wanted to share a portion of an article written
by Alexander Skutch in 1944 called "The life of the Quetzal".  He apparently
spent several years observing the birds in Costa Rica.  It looks as though
the bird has a variety of "voices", still not really any chrips, though:

"...I had attributed only a single kind of call to the Quetzal. This was a
loud, startled-sounding wac-wac, wac-wac that they often voiced in flight.
The call bears a certain resemblance to the notes of alarm of the smaller
trogon, most of which have a startled, cackling character, but are less
powerful than the corresponding utterance of the Quetzal.  But in late
February, as the mating season approached, I began to hear notes of a very
distinct kind.  During March, the Quetzals called much; and it became clear
to me that they had a rather varied vocabulary, including sounds of rare
beauty.  They were most vocal in calm, cloud-veiled dawns, and late on misty
afternoons; in bright weather they called less, and on windy days rarely
broke silence....The Quetzal's voice, a its best, is softer and at the same
time deeper, fuller and more powerful than that of any other trogon I know.
The notes are not distinctly separated, but are slurred and run into each
other, producing a flow of mellow harmony....The female, on rare occasions,
was heard to utter a clear-voiced call resembling that of the male, but in
far weaker, more subdued tones.  At times,, especially at the outset of the
season of nesting, the Quetzals voiced notes of whining, complaining
character, which appear to be mating calls....Later when they were
incubating, both male and female would deliver nasal or whining notes of a
rather smilier character as each came to relieve the other on the nest. In
May, I became aware of an utterance very distinct from all these, a high,
soprano, sliding whooo, not especially loud -- a surprising performance
which, when I first heard, I was inclined to attribute to a mammal rather
than a bird...."

Elaine

On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Dave Pentecost <dave.pentecost at gmail.com>wrote:

> Listeros - I found this page of Quetzal recordings. Have not listened yet.
> Listen and respond!
>
> http://www.xeno-canto.org/browse.php?query=QUETZAL
>
> And for my own 2 cents, I would love to believe that the Maya intended to
> do
> this. But I agree that merely saying that it must have been planned and
> built that way, since they were so skilled at other things, is not enough.
> And I suspect that many stepped pyramids (as well as other modern buildings
> with steps - courthouses, etc.) will return similar effects.
>
> Best
> Dave
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 3:08 PM, Nick Hopkins <nhopkins at mailer.fsu.edu
> >wrote:
>
> > Just a question-- I haven't been following this too closely.  There
> > have been a lot of references to the "chirping" sound of quetzals.
> > But my source on bird calls has no mention of such a call, and since
> > Maya bird names often imitate the calls of the birds, I assumed that
> > the quetzal would have a call something like its name, k'uk' (or
> > q'uq'), like other Trogonidae.  Irby Davis (Field Guide to the Birds
> > of Mexico and Central America, UT Press, 1972, pg. 87), says of the
> > quetzal:
> >
> > "The song is made up of a series of similar calls.  A single motif
> > may be represented as cuauk cuoo, or possibly cuak ca; the pitch is
> > about F2D2 sharp E2.  The complete motif with the pause between the
> > figures requires nearly two sec.; it is repeated after a rest of
> > about one sec.  The series may continue for several minutes. Although
> > it is heavier, the quality is similar to that of the Jalapa Trogon."
> >
> > So where is the "chirp"?
> >
> >
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