Pleroma heteromalla
Reserva
Mãe-da-Lua

Espécie anterior Próxima espécie
Little Wood-Rail: Songs and calls
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In RPPN Mãe-da-Lua, I heard sounds of the Little Wood-Rail on many occasions. The immediate surroundings of the office of Associação Mãe-da-Lua are a perfect place to record solo songs and duets of this species, at dusk, during the first part of the wet season (provided the rains are good). Example: h2078.

A recent paper in Cotinga about Aramides mangle (Redies 2010) refers to some of the recordings below. The figures in this article correspond to the following recordings:

Fig. 1 - h28;
Fig. 4 - h41;
Fig. 5 - h33; check also h2078;
Fig. 6 - h45;
Fig. 7 - h39.

Poor photo of singing Little Wood Rail
25/02/2009; Mãe-da-Lua Reserve, Itapajé, Ceará, Brazil.
Figure 1. A poor photo, that's true, but good enough to identify the singing bird as Aramides mangle. The red-orange patch at the base of the bill is clearly visible. The camera click can be heard in h45.

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Saracura-do-mangue sonogram
29/01/2009, 13h26. Reserva Mãe-da-Lua, Itapajé-CE.
Sound h28. Solo song of Little Wood-Rail. No playback used.

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27/03/2009, 18h03. Reserva Mãe-da-Lua, Itapajé-CE.
Sound h41. Another example of a solo song of Little Wood-Rail. No playback used.

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27/03/2009, 18h03. Reserva Mãe-da-Lua, Itapajé-CE.
Sound h45. Solo song after playback. I took pictures of the singing bird (fig. 1), and the clicks of my camera can be heard in the recording.

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Saracura-do-mangue sonogram
25/02/2010, 18h22. Reserva Mãe-da-Lua, Itapajé-CE.
Sound h2078. In February and March 2010, pairs of Little Wood Rails gave duets on many evenings, always around 18h00, from various sites in Mãe-da-Lua Reserve. From the office of Associação Mãe-da-lua, I could hear an estimated 8 or 10 different pairs, some far away (1000 m?), and some quite close. The pair recorded in h2078 was closest, ca. 15-20 meters from my recording location behind the office. The spectrogram depicts a short extract of the duet, with "A" and "B" indicating the two singing individuals.

Also: Glaucidium brasilianum.

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20/01/2009, 07h00. Reserva Mãe-da-Lua, Itapajé-CE. h33. (c) H. Redies.

Som h33.

Sound h33. Duet of Little Wood-Rail.

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20/01/2009, 07h00. Reserva Mãe-da-Lua, Itapajé-CE.
Sound h39. Faint 250-350 Hz tone pips. Possibly a danger alert, inaudible to some predators because of the low frequencies.

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Saracura-do-mangue sonogram
26/04/2012, 06h27. Reserva Mãe-da-Lua, Itapajé-CE. h1972. (c) H. Redies.
Sound h1972. Calls of Little Wood-Rail. These sounds are from a Little Wood Rail which I encountered in the hills of RPPN Mãe-da-Lua, in secondary Caatinga. The bird walked on the ground, in the vegetation, at a distance of about 10-12 m from me. I assume that the bird was aware of my presence; the calls could be danger alerts. The spectroram shows the last three clicks of the recording.

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