Bird sings through feathers

In 2005 Kimberly Bostwick, curator of birds and mammals at the Cornell University of Vertebrates in Ithaca, New York, theorized that the male club-winged manakin—a tiny bird of the Andean cloud forest—was vibrating a club-shaped wing feather against a neighbouring, ridged feather to "sing" when trying to attract females.

Proving the feather-song connection, though, would be a huge challenge. The team used lasers to monitor vibrations as they were oscillated by a lab device called a mini-shaker. The special feathers vibrated at exactly 1500 hertz — proving they're responsible for the strange sounds. LINK: Nothing to do with Arbroath