The Top 10 Colombian Songs Inspired By Birds
Check out our host Chris’s top 10 Colombian songs inspired by birds, featuring classic vallenato and joropo tunes, as well as some more modern numbers.
If you're a regular reader of this blog or a viewer of The Birders Show, you probably know that Colombia has more bird species than any other country on earth. But you might not know that the birdiest country on earth is also one of the most musically diverse: Colombia is often called 'The Land of a Thousand Rhythms.'
From the hypnotic grooves of cumbia and bullerengue to the raucous folk rhythms of vallenato and joropo, Colombia is a land defined by music. And, since the country is so bird-diverse, it seems only natural that many Colombian musicians have taken inspiration from birds and birdsong over the years. After all, what animal is more musical than birds?
Now, listing every Colombian song that namechecks a bird would probably take forever - cumbia, vallenato, and joropo artists love dropping a few bird names into their songs - so we've compiled a list of our personal Top 10 Colombian songs inspired by birds for the sake of brevity. But we'd love to hear more suggestions from our followers, so please do comment with your suggestions for more bird-inspired Colombian tunes.
Read on for The Birders Show's Top 10 Colombian songs inspired by birds:
Andrés Landero Y Su Conjunto - La Pava Congona
If there's one song that's a guaranteed entry on a list celebrating songs inspired by birds, it's Andrés Landero's classic cumbia number, La Pava Congona. Landero was born in San Jacinto in the Montes de Maria mountains, considered by many to be one of the birthplaces of cumbia music. He's one of the country's most famous accordionists and once proclaimed that he wanted to imitate birdsong with his accordion. His most renowned attempt was La Pava Congona, a song inspired by its namesake, the Crested Guan. The song also features numerous references to other birds, including a species named corcovado, a local name for wood-quail. If we assume that Landero was writing about his native region, the species referenced is likely to be Marbled Wood-Quail, found in the Montes de Maria.
Tirso Delgado - A las Aves de Mi Llano
In 2002, Tirso Delgado was recognized by the Colombian Ministry of Culture as one of the pioneers of Colombian music for his decades-long career in joropo music, a folkloric genre originating in the Eastern Plains (or Llanos Orientales) of Colombia and Venezuela. One of his most iconic songs is A Las Aves de Mi Llano (or 'To The Birds of My Plains'), a beautiful ode to the myriad bird species of the vast, seasonally-flooded savannahs of eastern Colombia. This song might well hold the record for the birdiest song of all time, with dozens of species mentioned by their local names. The excellent video below compiles all the species with their local and scientific names, as mentioned in the song.
Ondatrópica - Hummingbird
Ondatrópica is a collective of Colombian and international musicians whose music is inspired by the traditional rhythms of Colombia but with a modern twist. They've released two full-length albums featuring contributions from over 60 different musicians to universal critical acclaim. Their second record, Baile Bucanero, was recorded on the Caribbean island of Providencia and heavily influenced by Afro-Colombian music. That influence is evident in 'Hummingbird,' a jazzy, afrobeat number featuring the repeated refrain "Hummingbird (How can you fly away) (In the world today)." If we're getting truly bird-nerdy (which, let's face it, we are!), then any hummingbird the band encountered during the recording sessions was likely to be a Green-breasted Mango, the only resident hummingbird species on the island.
Lulacruza - Cucarachero de Niceforo
According to their website, the Colombian-Argentine band Lulacruza "is an electronic folk duo operating at the junction of the hypermodern and the ancient." They contributed this hypnotic number to the collaborative fundraising album A Guide to the Birdsong of South America, a record inspired by the birdsong of endangered South American species, put together by the DJ El Búho. Featuring the song of the endemic Niceforo's Wren, the song opens with the melodic whistling song of this critically endangered species before building to a pulsating electronic beat weaving between the insistent song of the wren and Alejandra Ortiz's haunting vocals. This song is as beautiful as any I've heard about a bird.
Petrona Martinez - Gavilan Negro (Son Vallenato)
Petrona Martinez is one of Colombia's most iconic bullerengue musicians. Bullerengue is a traditional style of music from Palenque communities on the Colombian Caribbean coast and is principally performed by older women accompanied by handmade drums. This particular track is a vallenato number, featuring Martinez's instantly recognizable vocals over a jaunty accordion line and the guest vocals of Egidio Cuadrado. The song's name translates as 'Black Hawk,' and - getting nerdy again - could well have been inspired by the Common Black Hawk, a relatively abundant species around Petrona's native Bolivar department.
Juancho Polo Valencia - El pájaro carpintero
Juancho Polo Valencia was one of the most important vallenato songwriters of all time. Several of his compositions regularly find themselves on "all-time greats" compilations of this iconic Colombian genre. One such tune is El pájaro carpintero, “The Woodpecker.” Fun fact about vallenato for bird lovers: the indigenous instrument known as the 'guacharaca' that provides the rhythmic backbone of vallenato was invented to imitate the song of the chachalaca, with which it shares its local name.
Maria Mulata - Guacamayo Prieto
Maria Mulata's Guacamayo Prieto takes the prize for the only song on this list where the artist and the tune are named after birds. Maria Mulata takes her artistic name from the local name for the Great-tailed Grackle, a species which is the soundtrack to any day spent wandering the streets of Cartagena. The song takes its name from the Spanish word for macaw and features the typical call-and-response vocals and propulsive drumming of traditional cumbia and bullerengue music.
The Birders Documentary Soundtrack
The documentary film series The Birders inspired The Birders Show, so we could hardly leave this bird-inspired soundtrack off the list, now could we?! The five tracks on this soundtrack take their inspiration from hummingbirds, the Santa Marta Parakeet, manakins, bird migration, and the Vermilion Cardinal, respectively. They blend traditional Colombian coastal rhythms with electronic influences to create perhaps the most cohesive EP ever entirely inspired by birds. The artists featured - Mucho Indio, Sidestepper, Frente Cumbiero, El Leopardo, and Ghetto Kumbé - are some of Colombia's most influential independent bands. The track Manakin Boom by El Leopardo is a personal favorite, particularly with its use of the clicking call of the White-bearded Manakin as percussion.
Cholo Valderrama - En Un Baile Sabanero
As mentioned earlier, this list could easily be entirely comprised of joropo songs; such is the genre's propensity for local fauna. However, even with so many wonderful joropo songs to choose from, it's hard to look past the work of Cholo Valderrama, who has done more than anyone in recent years to popularise this regional folk music. En Un Baile Sabanero is a fun number in the vein of A las Aves de Mi Llano, in which our narrator stumbles upon a party in the plains, attended entirely by local llanos animals. Some of the bird species attending the party include the Horned Screamer, Crested Caracara, Venezuelan Tropical, Scarlet Ibis, and Limpkin. Check out the entertaining animated video below to see all the birds and animals featured.
Meridian Brothers - El Gran Pájaro de Los Andes - Instrumental
Finally, we end with a track by one of Colombia's most unusual and experimental bands today, Meridian Brothers. Bandleader Eblis Álvarez founded Meridian Brothers in the late '90s as a solo project. Their work has variously encompassed experimental, avant-garde takes on salsa, cumbia, and vallenato, typically with flourishes of electronic and psychedelic music thrown in. I've seen them described - rather aptly - as a "tropical Captain Beefheart." The song El Gran Pájaro de Los Andes comes from their 2014 record Salvadora Robot and is named after the national bird of Colombia, the Andean Condor. The video, which you can see below, features a giant marionette of the condor, operated by Pedro Ojeda, who also happens to be one of Colombia's best contemporary drummers and bandleader of Romperayo.
Bonus Track: El Búho - The Helmetcrest
We could hardly leave out The Birders Show theme song, inspired by the endemic Blue-bearded Helmetcrest, could we!?
If you’re interested in the relationship between birds and music, then don’t miss our interview with DJ El Búho for The Birders Show:
