Joe Belmont (bird impressionist)

Joe Belmont was the stage name of Joseph Walter Fulton (July 22, 1876 – August 29, 1949) who was a whistling performer and baritone in the United States who came to be known as "The Human Bird".

[1] He was one of the most popular recording artists in the years leading to 1900 and sang as a baritone and whistled for the Columbia Quartet along with Albert Campbell, Jim Reynard and Joe Majors.

His top-selling records included "Beautiful Birds, Sing On", "Tell Me, Pretty Maiden" (with Byron G. Harlan, Frank C. Stanley, and the Florodora Girls, Columbia 31604, 1901).

[1] When Joseph was eight years old his family moved to Charles Town, West Virginia, and while there he studied the piano and became skilled in imitating birds through whistling.

[1] Dental problems led to his retirement from whistling after which he performed for the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1920s with the "Belmont Canary Opera" show consisting of trained singing and talking birds where he was assisted by Virginia, a dancer who later married his son Walter Joseph.