[From EARTHWATCH magazine, May-June 1996]

Michael Schindlinger on bass-playing, biology, and Charlie the parrot

t is hard to imagine two personality types more contrary than scientist and musician. Maybe that's what makes Earthwatch scientist Michael Schindlinger so distinctive: he is both. Schindlinger (Mexico's Wild Parrots) is a doctoral candidate in Harvard University's biology program, but he began as a bass player studying Romantic and Impressionistic music at Berklee School of Music. And the link between them, it turns out, was his pet parrot Charlie.

Schindlinger has had Charlie for years and has found him to be not only "very smart, social, and communicative," but also profitable: on a few occasions, Schindlinger admits sheepishly, he charged tourists in Boston's Fanueil Hall to take Charlie's picture ($1 for a picture of Schindlinger holding Charlie, $2 for a picture of the tourist holding him). But the more he came to understand both music and parrots, the more he wanted to fill what he calls "the big hole" that exists in our understanding of parrots and communication. What is the natural range of their vocalizations, and how do they use them to communicate and shape their society? Thus his turn as a biologist.

He originally went into the field to study wild parrots vocalizations in Mexico hoping to identify universally appealing modes in art and especially music. "I felt that a flower is beautiful to all people everywhere because of its symmetry, its colors, and that sort of thing," he explains. "So I started studying science thinking that I could learn a heck of a lot that would make me a better composer." After three years in the field. however, Schindlinger unapologetically admits that there probably is no universal aesthetic in music. "But," he adds quickly only hours before departing for a six-month stint at his Mexican research site, "l found that I love doing the science for its own sake." This year, he plans on sharing that love of science with Earthwatch volunteers, who will get to do considerably more than pose with the parrots.

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