Wing Ding: Bird rubs feathers for cricketlike song

Males of a South American forest bird make courtship music with built-in scrapers—just as insects do. This is the first example of a vertebrate producing sound in this manner, scientists report.

CRICKET BIRD. A male club-winged manakin can shiver its wings so that a kinked feather (inset) scrapes over bumps on a neighboring feather to make romantic music.