'Songs of Disappearance': Spreading awareness, birdsong album overtakes music stars in Australia

There is a new album in the top five of the Aria charts in Australia. Incredibly, it is made up entirely of endangered Australian bird squawks and tweets.

Titled 'Songs of Disappearance', the album has eclipsed the likes of The Weeknd and Abba, as well as holiday favourites Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey.

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Created by BirdLife Australia, the album features the birdsongs of 53 of the most threatened species in Australia.

The album was released on 3 December, and a social media campaign was launched to help it reach Australia's Aria music sales charts. Needless to say, the campaign worked -- 'Songs of Disappearance' has made history by becoming the first album of its kind to chart in the top five.

Proceeds from the sale of this album will go to BirdLife Australia's conservation projects.

Wildlife sound recordist David Stewart has been collecting often unheard sounds of Australian wildlife for about three decades. Bird recordings from his collection have been used for the album.

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Some sounds required hours of waiting in the bush to record just one short tweet.

"This album is a very special record with some rare recordings of birds that may not survive if we don't come together to protect them," BirdLife Australia CEO Paul Sullivan told The Music Network.

"While this campaign is fun, there's a serious side to what we're doing, and it's been heartening to see bird enthusiasts showing governments and businesses that Australians care about these important birds," he added.

You can listen to the album here:

A study by Charles Darwin University indicates that 216 out of 1,299 or one in six Australian bird species are now threatened. The study, which included the input of more than 300 bird experts, found that climate change was pushing species closer to extinction.

In the wake of the 2019 and 2020 bushfires destroying their habitats, BirdLife Australia estimates that the number of endangered bird species has increased by as much as 25 per cent.

(With inputs from agencies)