Sparrow in the Coal Mine

(2025, coal, wood, Raspberry Pi, speaker, Salt Marsh Sparrow call provided by Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library.)

The Saltmarsh Sparrow, with its complex, delicate song, is the only bird endemic to Atlantic Coast salt marshes. With under 60,000 left, and population declining at an alarming 9% per year, extinction could occur by 2035 due to rising sea levels. Because of this they have garnered the unfortunate nickname “sparrow in the coal mine.”

Using coal to emit the sparrow’s light, high-pitched song, a contrast is drawn, a tension between crude and delicate. Between an object responsible for destruction, and what’s destroyed. The piece, small but brutal, evokes the idea that, like the canary who warned miners of an imminent threat to human life, the decline of the Saltmarsh Sparrow sends an urgent warning about climate change. Through random audio degeneration, the Saltmarsh Sparrow’s song deteriorates and dissolves until it disappears completely, replaced by the crackle of white noise. Of an indeterminate future. Without a small bird who called out and was not heard.