Sounds and Vocal Behavior

The song of Plain Xenops is described as "a very fast chattering trill, accelerating then slowing at end, dit dit dit-dit 'dt'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'a'a'a" (Hilty and Brown 1986) and as "a slightly descending, slightly accelerating, series of high, lisping, rising notes, usually a pause before the last note: wisst wisst-wisst-wisst-wisst wisst" (Lane, in Schulenberg et al. 2010).

For a representative audio recording with sonogram, see audio

Remsen (2003) describes some geographic variation in song: littoralis has a faster song than the Amazonian subspecies, consisting of ascending tsi notes; the song of mexicanus starts with 1-4 pip notes, followed by a "high-pitched, rapid, liquid trill"; and the song of ridgwayi is initiated with 1-2 call notes (often repeated), followed by a rattling trill.

Both sexes of Plain Xenops sing (Skutch 1969).

Calls of Plain Xenops are described as "a soft chip, uttered singly or rapidly in a trill" (Hilty and Brown 1986), "a thin tseep and a lisping hiss, psssi" (Howell and Webb 1995), and "high spi! notes, singly or in series" (Lane, in Schulenberg et al. 2010).

Additional audio recordings of vocalizations of Plain Xenops can be heard at Macaulay Library, at xeno-canto, and at Internet Bird Collection.

None reported.