An album of Australian birdsongs is currently storming the ARIA charts, beating Michael Buble and Mariah Carey to the top five.
Yes folks, it's a week out from Christmas and Michael Buble and Mariah Carey have some competition.
The album, 'Songs of Disappearance' has 54 tracks, including an intro, and features the voices of different endangered Australian birds.
It's $9.99 for a digital copy or $12 for the CD and more than 3,000 copies have currently been sold.
Proceeds from the sale of the album are going to BirdLife Australia's conservation efforts and the tracks have been recorded over decades by David Stewart Nature Sound, a wildlife sound recordist.
The 53 birds included on the album include the Fairy-wren, Australian Palm Cockatoo and the Regent Honeyeater.
The album is currently sitting in the ARIA top five, following Adele, Ed Sheeran, Paul Kelly and Taylor Swift.
Can we talk about Paul Kelly's Christmas album 'Paul Kelly's Christmas Train' also proudly keeping Buble and Mariah out of the top five?
Speaking to the ABC, Anthony Albrecht, a PhD student at Charles Darwin University and co-founder of The Bowerbird Collective, said he believes Australians are very aware of the importance of their native wildlife.
"It's absolutely incredible to have knocked Michael Buble, Mariah Carey and a whole bunch of other really famous artists out of the [top five]," he said.
"In some ways, it's not surprising, because I believe Australians generally are so much more attuned now to the environmental crisis that we're all facing - and that the unique and incredible species that also call Australia home are facing."
Some of the recordings are very brief, because they're literally the biggest snippets of these birds Stewart was able to get over the 40 years he has spent recording birds.
"Some of the recordings are so brief because he waited hours out in the bush to hear a peep out of some of these species," Albrecht said.
The album was inspired by an extinction report from BirdLife Australia, produced in part by Stephen Garnett who is also a co-creator of the album.
"[Birds] are the original artists," he said.
"They've been singing for millions of years ... and now they're going, and there's a whole lot that we're not going to have with us if we don't do something about them."
Featured Image Credit: Prisma by Dukas Presseagentur GmbH / Alamy Stock PhotoTopics: Christmas, News, Birds, Australia
