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Jynx! Transcript-534
BirdNote®
The Jynx Bird
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote!
[Ambient behind the Eurasian Wryneck]
There is an element of luck in birdwatching, and sometimes that luck is mostly bad. A birder may find a particular bird so elusive, that after many unsuccessful attempts to see it, the bird becomes a kind of “jinx bird.”
[A frustrated Sylvester the Cat]
Can a bird truly be equated with bad luck? Europeans centuries ago believed so, for the very word “jinx” and its connotation of a spell of bad luck comes directly from a bird’s name.
The bird once called the “jynx” (j-y-n-x) is the bird known today as the Eurasian Wryneck. [Call or song of the Eurasian Wryneck] When a wryneck, a brown and gray-toned bird about the size of a small woodpecker, is threatened at its nest-hole, it twists its head sideways like a snake and hisses.
This anomalous behavior led to the wryneck being invoked in witchcraft to put a spell or a jinx on someone.
[Lines from “I Put a Spell on You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins]
Today the Eurasian Wryneck seems harmless enough, although its scientific name, Jynx torquilla, honors its neck-twisting, bewitching reputation.
[Call of the Eurasian Wryneck]
Would you like to receive stunning photos each week of the birds we’ll feature in the week ahead? If so, come to birdnote.org and sign up on the link entitled “Weekly Preview.” For BirdNote, I’m Frank Corrado.
[Lines from “I Put a Spell on You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins]
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Call of the Eurasian Jynx provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by B. Veprintsev.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2010 Tune In to Nature.org Jan. 2010
ID#011306EUWRKPLU EUWR-01-FCr-2010-01-22-
EUWR-02-2008-01-XX-KPLU was incorrect. EUWR-01-FCr-2010-01-22-
(Revised Nov. 2007)
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