A couple of weeks ago, I posted a soundscape called Amazon Dreams, featuring a recording made in 2002 at the Madre Selva Biological Station in Peru. Here is yet another amazing soundscape from that trip, this one recorded by my friend Ted Mack.

Ted’s recording features the songs of a variety of species, including two species of tinamous, two owls, and a dove. The high point of the recording is when a group of titi monkeys sound off in the distance (pronounced “tee-tee”). The spectogram is also beautiful in its own right, and conveys the rich diversity of sounds from low to high:

Rainforest chorus from the Peruvian Amazon. Madre Selva Biological Station, about a day downriver from Iquitos. Recorded in early January of 2002 by Ted Mack.

It is difficult to criticize this recording. It is otherworldly to my ears, a soundscape so amazing that I just sit spellbound when I listen to it. Do you have the same reaction?

Let’s try to make sense of what we’re hearing. I’ll use the sound collection at MacCaulay Library to point you to reference recordings (just hit the species names, which are linked to specific xeno-canto recordings):

Undulated Tinamou – melodic 4-parted whistles
Cinereous Tinamou – simple loud whistles, all on one tone
Tropical Screech Owl – throaty gurgled songs heard in the background near the beginning
Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl- hollow tooting series heard after the Titi Monkeys end
Titi Monkeys – resonant outburst of calls starting halfway through
Gray-fronted Dove (?maybe not?) – low, soft moans heard throughout

In 2002, I visited the Peruvian Amazon with my friend Ted Mack. We went there as part of a herpetology/ornithology tour sponsored by Margarita Tours. We flew into Iquitos and then went downriver to three refuges that are part of Project Amazonas, a very exciting non-profit medical, educational, and research effort.

The jungle soundscape literally blew me away. I’ve never heard such combinations of sounds. There is nothing in North America that is anything like it. The following recording is from the Madre Selva Biological Station:

A jungle soundscape recorded in early January of 2002 at the Madre Selva Biological Station about a day downriver from Iquitos, Peru. Recorded by Lang Elliott.

I consider this pure magic, an absolutely amazing and haunting soundscape by any standard. At the bottom of the frequency scale we hear the repeated wop! calls of jungle frogs, Leptodactylus pentodactylus (I think). A bird gives musical whistles every thirty seconds or so; I believe it is a tinamou. HIgher up cicadas periodically sound off with buzzy yet musical tones. About two-thirds through, several toucans call raucously in the distance. Higher yet is a diverse insect chorus. Throughout, one hears the snaps and pops of water drops and the like falling to the ground from the towering canopy—a signature sound of jungles everywhere.

Quite unbelievable, huh?

My Amazon soundscapes have gotten me excited. Initially, I envisioned my forthcoming “Soundscape Series” products to be focused entirely on North American habitats and species. But listening to my material (and Ted’s recordings) from the Amazon has changed my mind. I’m so enthused that each year I plan to go an expedition to some faraway place (Australia next autumn!) so as to get material for additional titles. The Amazon soundscapes will comprise my first such title, which I believe I’m going to call Amazon Dreams. Imagine going to sleep to this!