This is Bird Note. Some bird songs leave us in admiration of their beauty, some with a sense of wonder at their complexity, and others are downright comical.

This male willow Tarmigan sounds like he might be laughing, or at least doing his best to make others laugh.

As a maker of silly sounds, he beats the three stooges hands down.

For the male Tarmigan, though, these sounds are no laughing matter.

Where it nests in the low, dense, shrubby willow tundra of Alaska and Canada, the

willow tarmigan crows to attract females and show other males he's in charge of his stretch of tundra.

This stocky northern relative of grouse and chickens is a bright, rusty brown above with a white

belly and wings. The hen tarmigan is so well camouflaged in brown tones, you might be

looking right at her and never know it. But the male is another story.

Picture those white wings propelling that chunky, rusty body in a long arc over the tundra,

as he chuckles his way across the tops of the willows.

For bird note, I'm Michael Stein.

This episode is brought to you by the Tuttleman Foundation, with thanks for their generous

support.