A Phone for the Birds

By Linda Tancs

In Takoma Park, Maryland, there’s a phone fit for the birds. Known as The Bird Calls Phone, it’s an old payphone rewired by a local artist to play bird calls. The dial tone is replaced with the sound of a mourning dove, and each number corresponds to the call of a local bird. The phone’s buttons also play facts about the bird species. Instructions on use of the phone are provided in English, Spanish and Amharic (to accommodate Takoma Park’s sizable Ethiopian community).