[Aztlan] Plaster and Echoes

Wed Sep 3 15:36:14 CDT 2008

Elaine:

The resplendant quetzal actually does chirp. Its sound in flight is 
distinctly different, but most or all of its vocalizations while perched (or 
nesting?) undisturbed are chirps.

Chirp vocalizations vary, but always begin with a downward trajectory in 
frequency. Sometimes chirps alternate in pairs where the first chirp is 
downward and the second begin with a downward trajectory that reverse to 
finish upward.

My original source of quetzal chirps was Cornell Ornithological lab's CD 
"Sounds of the Cloud Forest" The first page of my 9-year-old website on the 
subject  http://www.ocasa.org/MayanPyramid.htm includes a 30-second 
recording of a quetzal chirping in its cloud forest habitat. Evidently many 
visitors fail to see the second page that features sonograms comparing the 
handclap and chirped echo with a quetzal chirp 
http://www.ocasa.org/MayanPyramid2.htm . The match seems outstanding. It 
probably does not have to be anywhere near that good to evoke the idea of a 
quetzal in the minds of prepared listeners.

Another source of quetzal chirp recordings was provided twice; most recently 
by D. M. Urquidi http://www.xeno-canto.org/browse.php?query=ETZAL To my ear 
the fifth file (the second file of Charlie Vogt) seems best.  The third file 
by Olf A. deBy suggests that "group excitement" may increase the variety of 
quetzal vocalizations. It may be that downward chirps are more likely from 
undisturbed individuals.

The site above also has sonograms. They are not useful for comparisons with 
mine. Both their time and frequency scales are far too wide to observe the 
harmonic structure. I might be coaxed into analyzing their recordings as 
well. But maybe someone else would like to give it a try.

At least one online bird authority seems to accept the plausibility of this 
proposal (Songbird Remix Central).

http://www.empken.com/wiki/doku.php?id=resplendent_quetzal&DokuWiki=0bc8a870aef3099c7b26c8fc0400e14b

Elaine's quote of Alexander Skutch's 1944 article also makes the point that 
calls are varied. It also notes that quetzal vocalizations become more 
frequent starting in February and especially during the March Mating season. 
This is supportive of the hypothesis of intentionality if the spring equinox 
shadow at the chirping staircase is meant to recall a cloud forest homeland.
----------------------
D. Clarke Werneke wrote:

"My problem with the acoustical theories and, specifically, the "chirp"
(besides thje extensive modern reconstruction of the structure itself) is
the fact that the quetzal is a mountain slope inhabitant. Yes, the Maya
traded in quetzal feathers and even somewhat imaginative imagery of the
quetzal BUT I would bet that only a handful, if that, of the inhabitants of
Chichen Itza had ever heard a queztal. Building a structure to mimic a
sound noone would recognize just seems beyond belief to me..... "

Clarke is mistaken that extensive rebuilding of the staircase has corrupted 
the acoustical finding. As I previously pointed out, the chirp is present 
and identical - though weaker - at the two unrestored staircases.

Clarke is correct that the quetzal is exclusively a cloud forest bird. Since 
the cloud forest quetzal habitat is hundreds of miles from Chichen Itza, 
Clarke doubts that more than a handful of Maya would know what a quetzal 
sounded like.

Even if only one or two recognized the sound their affirmation would confirm 
that belief for others.

Maya hunters imitated bird calls. I imagine the bird call vocabulary of Maya 
hunters was extensive. I was told that the quetzal is among the bird species 
that respond to the sound of their own call. The Laconda sp?) indians use 
that technique to the present day.

Many Maya traveled extensively in connection with the feather trade. The 
Maya were preeminent because their ancestral homelands included the cloud 
forest habitat. Their travel included trips to the cloud forest for quetzal 
captures, feather harvesting, and customer visits throughout much of 
Mesoamerica. The itinerant vendors known as  pochtecas (merchants who lead) 
were among them. Below is a quote from my online essay 
http://forecastpublicart.org/anthology-downloads/kiser.pdf
They carried the feathers from the Guatemalan highlands to

lowland religious centers, including Chichén Itzá. In fact, quetzal feathers 
have been

found as far north as New Mexico and as far south as the Andes. The 
pochtecas were

more than traveling salesmen. They were members of a guild sworn to act with 
humility

and modesty. They were explicitly forbidden from accumulating individual 
wealth or

from displaying personal affluence. In the book Bird of Life, Bird of Death, 
author

Jonathan Evan Maslow describes the merchants as a religious brotherhood 
devoted to

spreading the cult of Quetzalcoatl.

The pochtecas carried stories about "the fabled feathered serpent, the 
brilliant

green snake that lived in the sky and plunged to the earth," says zoologist 
and author

Dorothy Hinshaw Patent in her book Quetzal: Sacred Bird of the Cloud Forest. 
The

association of the bird with the sacred feathered serpent of Mesoamerican 
legend was not

arbitrary. The remarkable display exhibited by the male quetzal during its 
spring ritual

mating flight may have given rise to the image of the flying serpent that 
rose to the

heavens and then plunged to the earth. The Mayan inhabitants of the cloud 
forests must

have known these vernal sights and sounds well.

Best regards,

David Lubman
------------------

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elaine Schele" <elaineschele at gmail.com>
To: "Dave Pentecost" <dave.pentecost at gmail.com>
Cc: "Aztlan" <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Plaster and Echoes

> 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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>>
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>
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