There is a long description of the various calls given in HANZAB. That does not answer this question, apart from discussing which sex gives which call and in
what context. For one call it says “Pe he call given by both sexes, with call of female lower pitch.........” this references a 6 page 1972 article in Aust Bird Watcher “The nesting of the Spotted Pardalote”, which I have and just looked at and you can borrow
if you want. It says “It became possible to distinguish which bird was approaching the nest from the call alone.” There goes – one reference from 44 years ago supports the idea,,,,,, Of course it may be better known......
Beyond that it would be hard to be sure, for several reasons, there is often more than a pair together. I think you need to see them quite well to see the sex
difference. It is not that easy to see which tiny bird (usually) high in a tree is calling (sure sometimes you can) and if there is a difference is it consistent?
Beyond that I suggest no reason why there should not be a difference.
Philip
From: David McDonald (personal)
[
Sent: Monday, 14 March 2016 1:58 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Spotted Pardalotes
A good point Rob - perhaps there will be evidence in the calls and sonograms at
http://www.xeno-canto.org/ ?
Regards - David
On 14/03/2016 12:20 PM, Rob Geraghty wrote:
I was curious if anyone knows whether there's a difference in pitch of Spotted Pardalote calls between the genders. I was listening to the birds calling outside and there's at least a semitone difference between
the two birds calling. I've noticed the pitch difference before, but it just occurred to me that the difference might be the male calling to the female (or vice versa) and getting a reply.
