PIEDMONT – Anders Bjork spent nine days perfecting his Kakapo call.
“I had to stop doing the call at a certain point so it would stop hurting my throat,” said the Piedmont High senior.
His hard work paid off. He won first place in the 53rd annual Piedmont Bird Calling Contest on Friday evening at the Alan Harvey Theater on the campus of Piedmont High School.
“Honestly, I thought that my call wasn’t as good as it has been in the past when I was up there on stage, both because the microphone — I wasn’t so used to working with that — and because of nerves,” Bjork said. “It was my first acting thing ever. First time being on stage, I don’t like public speaking.”
The Piedmont Bird Calling Contest dates to 1963 when science teacher Leonard J. Waxdeck was approached by a student who wanted to spice up student life. It became nationally known as winners went on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and then “The Late Show with David Letterman.” Television appearances ended with Letterman’s retirement three years ago.
In this year’s contest, participants had to do a bird call, and also write and perform a sketch that explained details about their bird, like what it eats, and who its predators are.
For his performance, Bjork dressed in green with a neon green wig, a faded green tuxedo shirt and green wings, and danced around the stage explaining the mating rituals of the Kakapo. He fantasized about going to the moon, which he claimed had many female Kakapos, even using a banana as a prop telephone to call Elon Musk and ask to be transported to the moon.
The Kakapo is a ground parrot found in New Zealand that cannot fly. Instead, it climbs trees by using its beak as an extra claw. Bjork at one point attempted to lift weights to build up his wings so he could fly.
As the winner, Bjork’s name will be engraved on the perpetual trophy as well as a chicken trophy that he gets to keep. All the finalists also get a chicken trophy.
When he started out practicing for the contest, Bjork said he had other teammates, but eventually they all dropped out, leaving him as the solo performer. He spent 2 1/2 weeks working on his script.
“I didn’t know I’d be doing it alone when I started,” Bjork said. “My group members ended up being busy. But I still wanted to do it.”
Second place went to the team of Lucca Carr-Veramo, Dominic Judd, Victor Romo and Zachary Savage, who performed the Willow Ptarmigan. Third went to Jonathan Dinetz and David Schwartz, who performed the Rock Dove.
A video entry from the staff of the Piedmont Highlander, the school’s student newspaper, featured the staff — on a trip in New York City — attempting to find the “New York Peacock,” a fictional bird based on real peacocks. Members of the staff explained the peacock’s traits and did calls as well as harassed New Yorkers in a quest to find their bird.
The event also featured a performance on the piano by student Edwyna Zhu.