Geographic Song Variation in the Non-Oscine Cuban Tody (Todus multicolor)

Abstract

Abstract We studied sound emission in the non-oscine Cuban Tody (Todus multicolor) to quantify its acoustic repertoire and to document geographic variation in its songs across the Cuban archipelago. Cuban Todies emitted three types of sounds. The characteristic song of the species was recorded from 98% of 116 individuals. The characteristic song of the species and a variant form recorded from two individuals consisted of trains of multi-harmonic short, downward frequency modulated notes emitted at peak frequencies below 4 kHz. A third type of sound in the limited repertoire of the species recorded from two birds is presumably produced with the wings and appears in the spectrograms as a train of short clicks with frequencies also below 4 kHz. Evidence of geographic variation was found in the characteristic song. Birds from Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del Rio emitted more notes per train spaced at longer intervals than birds from the rest of the provinces. The peak frequency of the notes had lower values ...