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Birds · Five unusual species
5 birds you might never have heard of
A palm cockatoo that drums with a stick, a poisonous pitohui, a honeyguide that leads people to beehives, a racket-tailed spatuletail and a loud bellbird.
What is said in this reel
Five birds you might never have heard of. Number one is the loudest bird ever recorded. Number five. The palm cockatoo. It snaps off a stick and drums with it loud enough to hear 100 meters away. Number four. The hooded patue. Its skin and feathers carry batricotoxin, a poison first known from dark frogs. Number three. The honey guide. It leads people to wild beehives and it answers a human call. Number two. The marvelous spatchel tail. The male grows two bare wires, ending in rackets. Number one. The white bell bird. Its song peaks at 125 decibels. Sung right beside a female. Have you ever heard of them?
Credits and sources
- Footage: ABC Australia (Australia Remastered); Ikam Expeditions / NBC (The Americas); University of Cambridge / BBSRC (Dr Claire Spottiswoode); Current Biology 2019 study video (Anselmo d'Affonseca)
- Photos via Wikimedia Commons: JJ Harrison (CC BY-SA 3.0), Benjamin Freeman (CC BY 4.0), Brian Gratwicke (CC BY 2.0), Hector Bottai (CC BY-SA 2.0), Christoph Moning (CC BY 4.0); spatuletail plate by John Gould (public domain)
- Music: Industrial Cinematic by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
- Narration: AI-generated voice.