Air Date: Week of March 9, 2012

A Slender-billed flufftail (Photo: © Lucienne Wilmé)

Listen to two Flufftails from Madagascar. The same family perhaps, but with different habits – one roams far and wide while the other is a homebody.

Transcript

GELLERMAN: We leave you this week on an island off the east coast of Africa.

[BIRD SOUNDS OF MADAGASCAR]

GELLERMAN: This is the song of the Madagascar flufftail. The secretive birds, with short tails, hail from the rail family and are endemic to the island. Flufftails roam far and wide, and are not picky about their habitat; grasslands, rainforests, marshes or any old rice paddy will do.

[SOUND OF MADAGASCAR FLUFFTAIL]

GELLERMAN: That's the Madagascar flufftail; now, listen to the slender-billed flufftail.

[SLENDER-BILLED FLUFF TAIL]

GELLERMAN: The bird’s call is distinctive but the slender-billed is difficult to see. These flufftails seem to favor swamps and farm land, and they're threatened by habitat loss.

Both flufftail calls are on the British Library CD “Bird Sounds of Madagascar – an audio guide to the island’s unique birds.”

[SLENDER-BILLED FLUFF TAIL]

[SOUNDS: Frank Hawkins/Richard Ranft “ Madagascar Flufftail and Slender Billed Flufftail” from Bird Sounds Of Madagascar British Library Sound Archive 2007).]

 

Links

British Library cd “Bird Sounds of Madagascar – An audio guide to the island’s unique birds.”