Notes on the vocalizations of Green Crombec (Sylvietta virens)

In the following we briefly analyze and compare voice of the different races of Green Crombec (Sylvietta virens). 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).

Our main aim is to compare song of morphologically distinct flaviventris with other races (illustrated with multiple sonograms in the pdf version of this note): flaviventris, virens, baraka.

Song of all races is very similar, a short rather nervous melodious phrase, slightly descending in pitch and ending typically with a somewhat emphasized note lowest in (average) pitch. Almost all notes are in the range 3-6 kHz. flaviventris does not seem to differ by any means.

We haven't found recordings of race tando.

This note was finalized on 9th February 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: Jacob Cooper, Josh Engel, Phil Gregory, Hans Groot, Charles Hesse, Etienne Leroy, Mike Nelson, Niall Perrins, Bram Piot, Martin St-Michel and Crammy Wanyama.

References

Tobias, J.A., Seddon, N., Spottiswoode, C.N., Pilgrim, J.D., Fishpool, L.D.C. & Collar, N.J. (2010). Quantitative criteria for species delimitation. Ibis 152(4): 724–746.

More Information: on221_green_crombec.pdf