Lack Lazuli’s Birds of Boulder project is a project with Rabbit Rules Recording Studio artist Mayuko Fujino.

Art by Mayuko Fujino

Bird Descriptions Written and Performed by Lack Lazuli (Derek Pedersen)

Dark Eyed Juncos are a little charm of a sparrow, often seen in our backyards at feeders, and throughout the forests. One of the Songs a Junco makes is a “nik kik nik”, which some would liken to the sound of a stone being bounced across a thinly iced over lake.

The Cedar Waxwing is one of the bird-world’s most tip-top fashionistas.  Look for a brilliantly slicked-back coif, sparkles of red on wings, and a tail tip dipped in yellow.   A song of the Cedar Waxwing is a lovely, high-pitched ascending “Twirtzzee”. To remember this piece of Waxwing language - imagine a small, contained, tornado of sound.

House Wrens are tiny birds with a ginormous voice.  Their call is boisterous and sporadic—to identify it, isolate the part of the song that rises from piano to forte with a series of  “chek chek buhchek  BUHCHEK BUHCHEK chek chek chek”. You will find this bird bopping and weaving, in and out of thick covered brush wherever birds are found.

Spotted Towhee is a bird of a thousand jokes.  If on a hiking trail and you hear something rustling in the brush, kicking up leaves with vigorous determination… but you don’t see anything… one’s mind can wander off the path of birds to what other animal this could be? A mouse? A possum? A Mountain lion, perhaps? Just take a pause, and reel in your wandering imagination.  A Towhee may just pop up and say, “MEEEIIIHAA”