Birdsongs Top the Charts (and Protect Biodiversity)

A new musical genre is topping the charts. Last December, an album of endangered birdsongs, Songs of Disappearance, lasted several weeks among the top 50 albums in Australia—besting Taylor Swift, to name one of its contemporaries. A collaboration between the acclaimed nature recordist David Stewart, Nature Sound, the Bowerbird Collective, BirdLife Australia, Charles Darwin University, and Mervyn Street of Mangkaja Arts, Songs of Disappearance shares the songs of 53 of Australia’s most threatened species.

And in Western Africa, the long history of birdsong serving as a source of musical inspiration has taken on a new meaning. Record label Shika Shika is teaming up with musicians around the globe to raise awareness of the many avian species that are disappearing due to climate change, deforestation, and poaching. Their latest production, A Guide to the Birdsong of Western Africa, will feature compositions from renowned African musicians, such as Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré and Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, based on selected birdsongs. Profits from the project will support three biodiversity conservation projects in Africa.