ONE of Scotland's rarest breeds of birds has inspired a special piece of music which will be performed at the Royal Albert Hall.
The music is inspired by the RSPB Scotland’s discovery of the red-necked phalarope’s 16,000 mile migration route from Shetland to Peru.
Until 2013, the wintering location of Shetland’s phalaropes was a mystery and it was assumed they went to the Arabian Sea like those that breed in Scandinavia.
However in 2012, tiny geolocators were attached to breeding red-necked phalaropes.
Data recovered the following year, showing the little birds made an epic journey, taking in the Galapagos Islands, mainland Ecuador before their finals top in Peru.
Malcie Smith, Species and Habitats Officer for RSPB Scotland, said: "When we started this project, we never expected to discover such an amazing migration journey and we certainly didn’t expect our phalaropes’ journey to be celebrated by inspiring a musical production!"
Some 2000 children from London and Lima will perform the musical item, called ‘One Small Bird: Ballad of the Red-necked Phalarope’, at the London venue today.
Composed by Kate Stilitz and Jilly Jarman, it was commissioned specially for this event and includes six songs, the last of which is in Spanish.
Kate said: "Following a visit to Peru by Haringey young musicians last year and in anticipation of the arrival of 50 young musicians from Lima this summer, Peter Desmond, Head of music at Haringey music service commissioned us to write a song cycle that would explore connections between the two countries.
"We had been exploring Andean Legends which tell wonderful tales of Hummingbirds and Condors when we stumbled across the BBC article about the migration of the red-necked phalarope – a small, obscure creature doing something heroic – and that's where our song cycle began."
Children from Tiverton Primary in Tottenham, who were performing, have also been touch with the school in Fetlar, Shetland, which has only four pupils.
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