Poster for Every Bird Sings its own Song. AD: C. Gadegaard

The exhibition Every Bird Sings its own Song opened on October 1st, 2001 at Zoologisk Museum, now Naturama, in Svendborg, Denmark. The exhibition invites the visitor to enter the world of Danish song birds. It features six interactive displays located in Exhibit Hall 3.

Developing, implementing and evaluating the exhibition was part of my work towards my Master's thesis at the University of Southern Denmark. I was awarded my Master's degree in February 2002 with the thesis Promoting knowledge about bird song as a communication system to museum visitors (University of Southern Denmark Press, 142 p.)

Every Bird Sings its own Song was my first case of exhibit development. I divided the process into conceptualization, research, development, and implementation.

For each of these steps, I made strong use of the available literature - a literature pool that is increasing rapidly at the moment! Some of the articles that I found helpful for the development of Every Bird Sings its own Song are listed here:

Bitgood S (1990): Designing effective exhibits: criteria for success, exhibit design approaches, and research strategies. Visitor Behavior IX, 4-15

Bitgood S et al. (1988): Exhibit design and visitor behavior: empirical relationships. Environment and Behavior 20, 474-491

Harvey ML et al. (1998): The influence of museum exhibit design on immersion and psychological flow. Environment and Behavior 30, 601-627

These were a good starting point; however, much work has been added to the field since.

Sense the beechwood forest

A welcoming statement to the visitor, Sense the Beechwood Forest sets the stage for the exhibition by featuring Danish songbirds and their fellow inhabitants in a beechwood diorama.

A pre-existing diorama was re-interpreted by adding a banner with an evocative text and a sensory bench running around the diorama. The green sensory bench contains hinged doors under which various objects are placed. All objects can be sensed by either touch, vision, hearing or olfaction. The hinged doors bear photogaphs related to the content of the diorama and the content of the sensory bench.

Birdsong and territorial defense

The first display in a series of three, Birdsong and territorial defense illustrates the fact that birds use song to claim and defend their territories. The territory is valuable to the male song bird, both in terms of food resources and increased attractiveness to females.

An illustration of a forest seen from above shows the territories of three bird species. The push of one of three buttons lights up the territories of the respective bird species. The visitor can see where the territories of each species are located and how territories owned by birds of different species can overlap while territories owned by birds of the same species never do.

Birdsong and species recognition

Birdsong and species recognition is the second display in a series of three displays illustrating the functions of bird song. The display emphasizes the fact that bird song is species specific. Every species has a unique song. Sometimes hearing the song of a bird is the only way to identify its species.

The display features two pairs of twin species. The visitor is encouraged to try to tell the difference between the "twins", first visually and then by listening to their distinctly different songs.

Birdsong and mate attraction

The third display in the series of three, Birdsong and mate attraction illustrates the simple fact that a male song bird attracts female conspecifics by singing.

The display consists of an arrangement bearing two sets of rings. Each set consists of an upper, stationary ring with a photograph of a male bird and a lower, rotating ring with photographs of six female birds. The visitor is encouraged to line up the correct male - female bird pair by rotating the lower ring of the set. A correct answer is rewarded by a green light, while an incorrect answer is indicated by a red light.

The physiology of birdsong

This display explains how, physiologically, the vocalizations of birds are produced by comparing them to another very vocal species, man.

3D scale models of the bird syrinx and the human larynx are mounted on rotation disks, allowing the visitor to examine their structural features. Photographs of a singing bird and a singing man show the locations of the syrinx and larynx, respectively. The display is painted a dark red to signify the organic nature of the subject.