Nature's musician: Meet the only bird that produces music with its wings

Time of India

5 days ago

Deep within South America's cloud forests lives the club-winged manakin, a bird unlike any other. Instead of singing, the male manakin creates a musical tone with its wings, rubbing specialized feathers together at an incredible speed. Scientists discovered that unusually dense bones in its wings support this rapid motion, a unique adaptation for sound production.
Nature does not fall short when it comes to blessing the human eyes and ears with surprising marvels! One among these marvels resides deep in the cloud forests of South America. It is a small, vibrant creature called the club-winged manakin that has turned its sound-producing abilities into a concert.
While most birds sing with their vocal cords to attract mates, the Male club-winged manakin has taken a completely different approach. It doesn't sing, instead, it uses its wings to create a musical tone that is quite pure and precise, so much so that it competes as a musical instrument. This sound isn't just noise; it's rhythm, it's tone, and it's so consistent that it has been compared to a musical note.
Recent research has revealed a unique modification in its body that allows this bird to make such sounds.
What is special about this bird?
According to scientists at Cornell University, the male club-winged manakin doesn't sing in the traditional way. Instead, it creates sound by rubbing a pair of specialized wing feathers together, up to an astonishing 100 times per second. This unusually fast wing movement produces a high-pitched tone that is so stable, it matches the frequency of a musical note. It's like the bird is playing its own instrument, using its body as the bow and strings.
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What makes this movement unique?
A surprising trait about the bird is that despite its tiny size, the bird's body could withstand such rapid motion without breaking down. Using X-ray imaging, scientists found that the bones in the manakin's wings are unusually solid and dense, unlike any other known songbird. As reported by Cornell's research team, the wing bones are more similar to those of mammals than birds. 'This is one of the only known examples of a bird evolving dense bone not for flight, but for sound,' the study noted.
These dense bones are necessary to support the intense vibration caused by the feather rubbing. Researchers also found out that the bird sacrificed its ability for powerful flight to perform its unique musical mating call. Instead of soaring long distances, the club-winged manakin stays close to the forest floor, using its rhythm to charm potential mates.
It's just like a trade-off that shows just how far evolution can go in the name of love and sound.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons