'The Whistlers of Kolombangara' - Album Sample by Listening Earth

3 minute audio sample from the 79 minute nature sound album; "The Whistlers of Kolombangara", available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=110

The song of the Golden Whistlers of the Solomon Islands is one of nature's marvels.

This recording takes you to the island of Kolombangara to experience their melodic, rhythmic (and very loud!) voices reverberating through the rainforests that cloak the island's volcanic flanks.

We begin predawn, with a hypnotic chorus of frogs and insects in the tropical night. Suddenly a Whistler breaks the calm with an exuberant ripple of sound that sends a shiver up the spine. From then on there's no stopping him, as he pours out a sequence of percussive melodies at high volume.

As the day moves on, the whistlers ease back, and a variety of birdsong filters down from the forest canopy - Lorikeets, Mynahs, Flycatchers, Hornbills, White-eyes, Pigeons, Cockatoos - along with the gentle buzz of diurnal insects.

With the afternoon, we hear one of the other unusual voices of these forests; the harsh growls and booming calls of the Buff-headed Coucal. A Whistler gives some last calls as the light begins to fade and the electric vibration of dusk cicadas fills the air. After dark, the forest is filled with frogs once again, this time a multitude of chiming 'Koni' frogs.