PRIMAL SCREAM

A wildly unusual bird call shatters the peace of a tropical dawn

- Nick Baker's

I AWOKE TO AN UNEARTHLY DIN, LIKE a rubber foot pump with hiccups. It was so loud that I could feel it resonating in my guts. In the glass of water by my bed, I swear I saw concentric ripples à la that scene in Jurassic Park.

Peering out of the window of the ecolodge where I was staying in the Pantanal, South America's vast tropical wetland, a pair of the weirdest birds met my gaze. Reminiscent of large, satanic turkeys, they seemed to fancy each other, as they bowed and honked and honked... and honked. Was this a love song of sorts?

These peculiar birds were horned screamers (Anhima cornuta). And it turns out they are not just odd on the outside but on the inside, too.

There was no way I could get back to sleep now, so I watched them. Their performance lasted for the best part of an hour and died down for 15 minutes while the loved-up couple engaged in some mutual preening. When a third bird joined them, they resumed at full volume.