Hummingbird Audio

Quicktime Format:  In order to hear these audio clips, you will need to have the QuickTime plug-in. If you do not already have QuickTime installed, you can download it free at the QuickTime Web site. Alternatively, the clips are also available below in .wav format.

The following files of birdsongs were made from digital audiotapes of hummingbirds singing in the Atlantic tropical forest, in Espírito Santo, Brazil. They were recorded by Adriana Ferreira and Erich Jarvis.

In the sonograms you see on-screen, the X axis represents time in seconds, and the Y axis represents the frequency of the sound—that is, the number of its vibrations in air. The darker the components of an individual note, the louder it is. Hummingbird vocalizations typically have a wide range, from one to more than twenty kilohertz in frequency.

The Aphantochroa hummingbird song begins with an introductory note consisting of three harmonics (multiples of a fundamental frequency, which is five kilohertz), followed by a motif of five note types, in which the last two are repeated. In this sonogram, there is an introductory note followed by a motif, then an introductory note, and then another motif.

The Glaucis hummingbird song is much more varied and consists of notes with ascending and descending frequencies. The sonogram below shows that the song is quite rich and complex, with many different note types.

The songs of Aphantochroa and Glaucis are discussed in "Singing in the Brain" (Natural History, 10/00).

Wav Format:

Aphantochroa (624 KB)      Glaucis (969 KB)

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