This is bird note.

Can you name that tune?

Here's a hint.

Carmen Miranda, adorned with her signature fruit basket of a hat,

danced and sang this lively samba alongside Groucho Marx in the 1947 movie Copacabana.

The song is Tico Tico No Fubah, and like Carmen Miranda, came to us from Brazil.

Believe it or not, the song is about a bird.

The Portuguese lyrics tell the story of the Tico Tico Tico, a local name for the Rufus Collared Sparrow.

The Rufus Collared Sparrow is a handsome, familiar backyard bird found through much of Latin America.

And like so many birds, Tico Tico was named for its song.

Back to the lyrics.

It seems the bird with the musical name Tico Tico keeps coming back to the singer's yard to dine on her cornmeal piled in a backyard granary.

There are plenty of earthworms and fruit to eat, but Tico Tico prefers her dwindling supply of cornmeal.

She offered it bird seed, and let the cat out to chase it, but to no avail.

Tico Tico loves her cornmeal.

So whenever you hear this memorable samba,

think of that persistent little sparrow atop a pile of cornmeal.

For bird note, I'm Mary McCann.