28 animal sounds

August 21, 2023 4:59 AM

Listen to 28 Australian animal sounds, from a poll looking for Australia's favourite.

All 28 creatures (furred, feathered, froggy or exoskeleton-ed) have excellent sounds to listen to. There are also text descriptions of each sound.

(Spoiler- the winner is the magpie.)

posted by freethefeet (6 comments total)

(I know this poll was mentioned in the post below but thought it was worth it's own FPP.)
posted by freethefeet at 5:00 AM on August 21, 2023

That magpie carolling is gorgeous, but I gotta tell you - you need hours of that. They can do long, unrepeating chains of that warbling, just gorgeous. And they'll come and hang out with you and just sing you a tune. They also like people music, but will steal bits they like and rework them to their own tastes, so it's not quite like lyrebirds that just repeat things idiotically with maximum skill - magpies will remix. They are so, so smart. I whistle the opening bars of the Peppa Pig theme song as I walk through magpie territories, just to let em know I'm around. You want them to know you before they see you, they get used to you over time and won't attack you in the breeding season if they know who you are. My local birds now have a few three and four notes of that theme song woven into their own carolling, but only when the see me, or even more impressively, Dr Jilder, who whistles his own signature notes at them. Like they know we go together and it's like they go oh hey, that's Jilder's nestmate, hey friend, how's the wifey? I mean that's one of the things they do with their calls - transmit familial data - so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised if they let the neighbourhood know when mine's about.

We also have butcherbirds, and like magpies they vary their song. I found I was waiting through that ABC link for some familiar notes - like it sounds like butcher birds, but not my local crew. And they change too - I love the delighted song they sing under my eaves when its raining. Butchers seem to love the rain, they always save their most beautiful songs for drizzly days.

If 'hot' has a sound, it's cicadas. They're also loud, even a single cicada is like someone feeding a sheet of tin into a lawnmower in terms of volume. I had them fly into my study at one of my more recent tenancies and you're not getting anything done until they leave.
posted by Jilder at 6:11 AM on August 21, 2023 [8 favorites]

Went through the list with my kiddos and we were surprised by the koala sounds! They thought it was absolutely hilarious
posted by Baethan at 7:33 AM on August 21, 2023

I really liked the first two frogs but then the third one was ummmm.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:31 AM on August 21, 2023

Maggies ftw.

There are a lot of kookaburras around my in-laws’ place. In the summer there are usually juveniles who haven’t figured out the call yet and they sound like a garden sprinkler throwing an error message.

Also, I want to punch every Eastern Koel in the brain. They start their stupid song way before sunrise and keep repeating it until after sunset.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 6:06 PM on August 21, 2023

Baethan: What that doesn't covey is how LOUD they are, we used to live in koala country when I was a kid and it's like, on a cool day it'll carry for a km or more.
posted by Jilder at 3:41 AM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]