The Ground Parrot which was found at Malabar (Sydney) a few weeks
ago is currently being rehabilitated by WIRES. Chris Lloyd from
WIRES kindly let me make some recordings of this bird. This was
primarily to measure the source pressure level (basically volume) of
the calls and hence estimate the coverage of Ground Parrot call
surveys. But the call itself is interesting so I've put it here:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~andrewt/sound/gp.wav
It differs from any Ground Parrot call I know about in that the syllables
start with an sharp upwards sweep in frequency of 1khz or more.
GPs at Barren Grounds, in Queensland and in WA make calls with syllables
with a sharp downwards sweep in frequency - but otherwise similar -
e.g. sonagram C in HANZAB. I haven't looked at sonagrams/recordings
from south of Barren Grounds.
It might just be an aberrant call due to the captive situation but the
bird had been undisturbed and called just after sunset - normal behavior
for GPs. It also made a similar call at dawn (also normal behaviour )
the same day. Ground Parrot calls are probably innate so in general
call variation would mostly indicate genetic variation.
Anyway, I'd be interested if anyone has heard or recorded a GP call
like this.
I gather WIRES has volunteers to search the notionally suitable habitat
in the Malabar area this week to establish whether any other GPs are
present. I suspect observers familiar with GP calls would be useful
though so if you are interested in assisting I can pass your details on
to Chris Lloyd.
Andrew
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