When I find a spider in the house, the song “Boris the Spider” — one of the weirder tracks by The Who — often pops into my head.
With Red Foxes (or any other Canid) - “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvbSXVc451Q
If we stick with the classics, there’s also Camille Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of Animals and Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Being German and a botanist, I’m particularly fond of the Lindenbaum. For something a little more modern, I like Sarah Brightman’s The Fly.
Look, he’s crawling up my wall
Black and hairy, very small
Now he’s up above my head
Hanging by a little thread
If you’re a fan of worms, and other decomposers…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhGzVyF5zxc
I don’t think things ended well for Boris…
Frogs = “Bein’ Green” (also known as “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green”) - Joe Raposo - sung by Kermit
And then there’s “Pollywog in a Bog,” by Barenaked Ladies. That was also the theme song of our lab when I was in grad school, since we worked with freshwater wetland organisms.
“Rockin’ Robin” by (appropriately) Bobby Byrd – for robins.
And then, who isn’t just delighted by Baby Elephant Walk, by Henry Mancini?
Pretty sure I’ve heard that tune a thousand times and never knew what it was called. It kinda fits, though.
The Blackfly Song, an anthem for Simuliidae: http://www.nfb.ca/film/blackfly/
Edited to add: There is such a thing as a Northern Ontario secessionist movement that wants to take the northern part of the province out of Ontario. The Blackfly Song has been proposed (presumably in jest) as the provincial song. The mosquito would be the provincial bird.
I would counter with When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along)
The chorus (translating the Robin’s song):
Wake up, wake up you sleepy head
Get up, get out of your bed
Cheer up, cheer up the sun is red
Live, love, laugh and be happy
speaks to the Robin’s early dawn nature and ‘Cheer up’ is what the bird actually sings:
The musical song of the American Robin is […] often described as cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up .
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Robin/sounds
I love this song.
So many choices… I learned from the legendary Blossom Dearie that minnows come from Minnesota:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig2daWp-Pls
American Crow? Gotta be Joni Mitchell…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WNskIdJVuc
And Common Milkweed? P.M. Dawn…
Thank you for including the links where we can hear the songs, too.
Hmm… well, clearly different songs evoke different things to different people. The Joni Mitchell song was about a crow, yes, but it doesn’t to me evoke the essence of what a crow is. YMMV.
Now what comes to mind is the Andean condor. I find it best evoked by Vuelo de Condores here played by Savia Andina. I find this tune more suitable for that magnificent bird than “El Condor Pasa” which Simon and Garfunkel tortured to death with terrible lyrics.
100%
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“In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.”
Vachellia karroo: Everybody Hurts by R.E.M.