Lonely Planet: Night Noises

Birdland

Visitors to the steamy Amazon regions soon discover that insects demand a great deal of their time - shooing, swatting, slapping and cursing. Encounters with the birds of the rainforest, however, are more pleasant. Due to the dense vegetation, they're rarely seen but their cries are distinct. You may not be able to match the sounds to a mental image, but they will become familiar. Some sound as if they were designed by a Japanese electronics firm: travel alarm clocks, burglar alarms, doorbells. One sounds unmistakably like a cash register ringing up a purchase, while another emits raucous wolf whistles. A particularly annoying neighbour seems to be practising on a penny whistle, but never quite gets the tune right. When you emerge from the rainforest, you'll miss their tuneless symphony, which will probably have been replaced by nothing more interesting than a cacophony of car horns.

Photograph © Robert Strauss
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