#fade away

This bird song has a couple meanings for Noriel ! Well, one is that fact that its in spanish of course, and it's a latin american bird. So, cultural of course! BUT there is moreee The Hillstar is a hummingbird in danger of extinction that lives in the alpine meadows (paramos, we call them) in the Andes of Ecuador and a bit in Colombia! So essentially in some meadows up in the mountains and this has quite a bit to do with their symbolism. They symbolize resilience, adaptability and the beauty and vibrancy of life because!! They live in this highly cold and harsh environment that sometimes gets to the point of being unlivable for a lot of species. But the Hillstar has learned to adapt by going into a hibernating mode of sorts in winter and reawakening. A lot of people take this as the hillstar learning to adapt and survive by essentially "dying and coming back to life." It has a lot to do with learning to survive in harsh environments no matter what it takes, and finding beauty in hard places.

The fact that it's also an endangered species in here adds a lot to this too, to me. It's an animal under threat of fading away. AND the last fun fact that adds to the Nori symbolism, is that this bird evolved to be the way it is because of its intense isolation. "Geographic isolation has been proposed as the factor driving subspecific diversity of the Ecuadorian hillstar."

Noriel is specifically Afro-Esmeraldeña, place inside of Ecuador.

One big cultural aspect from Esmeraldas is their music and self expression through music. (Marimba, specially.) Something also important to note is that Noriel being an Afro-latina in a foster home set in America, means she has been taken away from her culture... a lot. And forced to separate further by the white people around her (will be explored in the comic deeply eventually). Afro-latinos also face a general pushback from being included as important parts of latin american culture by other non-Black latinos on top of it. So Noriel taking back her culture and making it hers through music is an expression of joy and belonging but also a statement.

Birds are also her favorite animal :]

All of that is why Kana doing this right after means a lot! It's not just that Kana brought over Noriel's favorite animal to listen to them sing and Kana being really cute about it. But it has a deeper emotional impact on Noriel that goes unspoken. She's another latina kid who saw them singing a song about birds and culture and wanted to share in and uplift their joy by adding to it.