Sounds and Vocal Behavior

The Long-tailed Wood-Partridge responds easily to vocalizations of congeners, playback and human imitation of  its song (G. C-L. pers. obs.). The song is given primarily at dawn and dusk from nocturnal perches, almost all year long, except during November, December, and January, and is more frequent during the breeding season, when they vocalize at any time of the day (G. C-L. pers. obs.).

The song of the Long-tailed Wood-Partridge is complex, loud and rhythmic, and usually is given in a duet by paired birds or sometimes involves several birds. Representative phonetic descriptions include: "a loud, ringing korr-EEE-oh, korr-EEE-oh, korr-EEE-oh, korr-EEE-oh" (Warner 1959); "a loud but rather hollow coa qup" (Davis 1972); "a series of ko'-or-eee' phrases spaced about one second apart, often in a chorus involving several birds" (Johnsgard 1973); "a loud, rollicking, whistle, whip-er-will-a, repeated rapidly" (Edwards 1988);  "varied , loud, rollicking whistles … ohrr ohrr ohrr lll, breaking into kee-ohrr kee-ohrr …, and whee-a-huck-u …, or quee-a-ruc …, or kee-a'ohr …, etc." (Howell and Webb 1995); and "high sustained uhjú-uhjú-uhjú (in duet) or "tídderah" (van Perlo 2006). Several additional representative examples of this song can be heard at the Macaulay Library.

The song in a spectrogram begins with an introductory phrase of two to seven low frequency unmodulated whistles, less than 1 second long each; continues with one phrase of two to three short harmonic notes, less than half second each; then increases in frequency with a harsh phrase of eight to 24 harmonics, and then concludes with a phrase of one to five short modulated whistles. This vocalization lasts between 12 and 26 seconds (G. C-L. pers. obs.). The following spectrograms show the variation in length of the song; note that the frequency of the strongest sound is low and has little variation, between 1 and 2 kHz.

The usual alarm call is a repetition of short low-pitched, unmodulated squeaky notes. A second alarm call lasts longer, up to 5 minutes, and includes short notes that are modulated at the end; the function of this call is not clear (G. C-L. pers.obs.).

A complete study of sounds and voice is lacking; topics in need of investigation include development, vocal array (song, territorial announcement call, location call, duets), phenology and daily pattern of vocalization, places of vocalization, repertoire and delivery of songs, and the social context and presumed functions of vocalizations.

When a Long-tailed Wood-Partridge is flushed, it utters a short alarm whistle and takes flight with a strong wing-flapping sound (G. C-L. pers. obs.).