# Canaries, Nightingales, Whistlers & Transcribers: Birdsong, Bird-Imitators & the Early 20th-Century Recording Industry

Ian Nagoski drew examples of rare early recordings from his recent digital release "Ecstatic & Wingless: Bird-Imitation on Four Continents, ca. 1910-44" to explore this forgotten art form and illuminate the world of vaudevillians and bird-fanciers, of canaries, nightingales, finches, and the people who studied them, poeticized them, and tried to be them. Humans have always been fascinated by birds and charmed by their songs. Caged songbirds and human imitations of birdsong date back millennia. In the early 20th century, the fledgling recording industry began to release records featuring birdsongs: both actual recordings of caged birds and humans imitating birds in styles that ranged from straightforward birdcalls to vaudeville-style schlock to virtuoso performances. During the 1910s and 1920s, the art and performance of bird-imitations produced amazing and eccentric celebrities; by 1925, commercial recordings of bird imitators had been released on six continents.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2016
- By: American Folklife Center
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021690257/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021690257?play=1)