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The Curious Case of the Pygmy Nuthatch

The story behind cinema’s most mysterious bird.

“It’s so hard writing a comedy in the studio system, because everybody gets bored and thinks the script isn’t funny anymore because this is the 18 th draft they’ve read.” While Penn and I could hatch conspiracy theories, he told me, “my guess is, it’s the chaos is what led to this.” All those writers were desperate for a bird that could make their bosses laugh—and could keep them laughing on the 18 th read. Jack and Jill might not have been great at taking direction—they would peck at Dill’s cuticles; she thinks she still has scars from them today—but as Venezuelan troupials, they were resplendent birds the color of a tangerine, with shiny black hoods, a sky-blue teardrop around each eye, and a blazing lightning bolt across each wing. This five-note trill from later in the same recording was then sutured on and looped three times, to complete the movie’s “pygmy nuthatch.”Screengrab from the Macaulay Library It was the butterfly effect: An actress flaps her hands on a set in California and, months later, a thick-billed fox sparrow, in an editing room, sings.

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