Hummingbird Songs

This page contains supplementary sound files of hummingbird calls and songs recorded for a study described in the paper Vocalizations and associated behaviors of the sombre hummingbird (aphantochroa cirrhoclhloris) and the rufous-breasted hermit (glaucis hirsutus) by Adriana R.J. Ferreira, Tom V. Smulders, Koichi Sameshima, Claudio V. Mello, Erich D. Jarvis (2006) Auk 123: 1129-1148. See the paper for more details and results of the study. Click on the links below to hear the corresponding sounds.

Supplementary Fig. 1.

Focus species and study areas. (A) Sombre Hummingbird and (B) Rufous-breasted Hermit individuals; photos are courtesy of Edson Endrigo, Brazil. (C) Map of Brazil showing the cities (*) and the states where the study species were recorded. MBML - Museu de Biologia Professor Mello Leitão; EBSL - Estação Biológica Santa Lúcia.

Supplementary Fig. 2.

Spectrograms and audio links to Sombre Hummingbird calls, based on Figure 1A-I of main paper. Click on links to hear calls.

Sombre Undirected Song Bout

Supplementary Fig. 3.

Spectrogram and audio link to a Sombre Hummingbird Undirected Song, based on Figure 3 of main paper. Colored lines in one E syllable depict nonrelated harmonics, likely a result of the two-voice phenomenon (blue and red). Same-colored lines depict related harmonics. Click on link to hear song.

Sombre Directed Song and Calls

Supplementary Fig. 4.

Spectrogram and audio links to Sombre Hummingbird Directed Song and Calls, based on Figure 5 of main paper. (A) Drawing of courtship display (by Rolf Grantsau). The male hangs by the female’s crissum, sways from side to side (arrows), and sings, while the female is perched. (B) Spectrogram of the end of a bout of Directed Song (upper trace) produced by the male, followed by a Whistle Call produced by the female, and Vibrato Calls (lower trace) produced by one of the birds during subsequent interactions while flying. Click on link to hear vocalizations.

Supplementary Fig. 5.

(A) Comparison of Song motifs of Sombre Hummingbirds at the MBML showing similarities and differences between individuals (a-e) of the same population. To fit spectrograms in the figure, silent intervals between the i and beginning A syllables of each song were deleted by the time indicated in milliseconds. All spectrograms were aligned at the beginning of syllable D (arrow). (B) Song motifs of Sombre Hummingbird individuals from a (a) EBSL bird located 11 km away from the MBML, (b) a MBML bird recorded 13 years earlier than the start of our study (October 1997) by Theodore Parker (TP) on October 11th, 1984 (Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, recording #33999), and (c) a Caieiras Mountain, São Paulo state bird (CCAPM) located ~1000 km south of MBML; CCAPM recordings were made at a resort club near feeders in 1999. Syllables are colored coded according to similarity. Note the stability of song over a short geographic distance (11 km) and over 13 years (A and Ba-Bb), but the variability of song across a large geographic distance (1000 km) within the same 2-year period (A and Bc). Click on links to hear songs.

Supplementary Fig. 6.

Spectrogram and audio links to Rufous-breasted Hermit calls, based on Figure 7A-D of the main paper. Click on links to hear calls.

Rufous Song Bout

Supplementary Fig. 7.

Spectrogram and audio link to a Rufous-breasted Hermit Song, based upon Figure 9 of the main paper. Asterisks indicate syllables near 10,400 ms that overlapped with an M-chirp call from another individual. Click on link to hear song.

Supplementary Fig. 8.

Comparison of Rufous-breasted Hermit Song segments showing similarities and differences between individuals. The syllables are colored according to the classification of Fig. 10 of the main paper, except for the gray-colored syllable that had too much background noise to allow its identification. For each bird, two types of Song segments are shown: the top panels are segments with transitions generally from A-B-D classes; the bottom panels are segments with transitions generally from A-E-other classes. (A-C) Individuals recorded at the MBML. (D) An individual recorded in Itabuna by Jacques Vielliard ~800Km North of MBML, 14 years earlier (Vielliard 1983) than our study. Note stability in syllable classes over a large distance and 14 years. Click on links to hear songs.