Notes on the vocalizations of White-naped Brush-finch (Atlapetes albinucha)

In the following we briefly analyze and compare voice of the different races of White-naped Brush-finch (Atlapetes albinucha). We also try to quantify the extent of any vocal differences using the criteria proposed by Tobias et al. (2010), as a support for taxonomic review. We have made use of sound recordings available on-line from Xeno Canto (XC).

Song is quite variable, a long series of leisurely delivered short and rather high-pitched notes or phrases.

Some examples of song from North to South (illustrated with multiple songrams in the pdf version of this note): Mexico (albinucha), Mexico (griseipectus), Honduras (fuscipygius), Panama, Colombia (gutturalis) and Ecuador (gutturalis).

Song of albinucha is very similar to other races, with about all basic sound parameters similar. Based on the few available examples of albinucha, it would seem that elements sometimes are doubled (repeated) resulting in a slightly longer phrase length, vs simpler shorter notes/phrases in other races. More recordings are needed to confirm this difference, which may lead to a vocal score of about 1-2.

This note was finalized on 25th May 2016, using sound recordings available on-line at that moment. We would like to thank in particular the sound recordists who placed their recordings for this species on XC: Roger Ahlman, Nick Athanas, Peter Boesman, Brayan Coral Jaramillo, Oswaldo Cortes, Pablo Flores, Carlo Funes, Niels Krabbe, Oscar Laverde, Bernabe Lopez-Lanus, Oscar Marin, Andrew Spencer, Charlie Vogt, Richard Webster and Sam Woods.

More Information: on364_white-naped_brush-finch.pdf