Similarity of 11 species belonging to the families Falconidae and Strigidae from their vocalization

Abstract

Knowing biological aspects of the families Falconidae and Strigidae as vocalization is relevant, since we could use this aspect as a basis to group species and evaluate their similarity. In this sense, the vocalizations of 11 species belonging to the Falconidae and Strigidae families were characterized, through the download of 53 audios per species from the Xeno Canto public access database. The variables considered in this study were: frequency, amplitude, duration, number of frequency peaks, crest factor, mean amplitude envelope and index of acoustic complexity. Once the vocalizations were characterized, the species similarity was evaluated, using hierarchical grouping (connectivity index = 9.415, Dunn index = 0.819). Keeping similarity from the characteristics of their vocalizations Falco peregrinus and F. columbarius, F. rufigularis and F. femoralis; while F. sparverius had more similarity with the first 2 species. All these species differ from the species of the family Strigidae having here Glaucidium brasilianum, G. jardini and G. peruanum more similarity; Likewise, Glaucidium hardyi and Aegolius harrisii have more concordance between them and finally Megascops roboratus presents similarity with all species of the genus Glaucidium (agglomeration coefficient = 0.67).