The Sound of Stripe-Backed Wrens

The first two clips feature stripe-backed wrens singing duets. In the remaining four, you can hear the WAY calls of individual wrens.

Duets, sung by a male and a female, consist of loud staccato notes (the sound is the source of the species' onomatopoeic name, chocorocoy.) To the untrained ear, the complex syncopated rhythms of duets can sound as if they are coming from one bird. Yet they are the efforts of two wrens, perched side by side and interposing their notes with precise timing. Notice how the sound patterns differ between the two duets.

As for WAY calls, their modulated nasal sounds and interspersed raspy clicks often sound lie the vowels and consonants of a human voice. In fact, researchers thought the birds sometimes sounded as if they were asking, "Where are you? Where are you?" — which is how these calls got their name. What do these WAY calls sound like to you?

Click a clip below and it will begin to play automatically on most computers. If the clip does not automatically play, please take a moment to download QuickTime free from Apple (available for both PC and Mac).

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