RECORDING 1
DATE/TIME: 30/march/2004 (9.30 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: One or more birds are in a cultivated field (hay). Around there are cereal fields, dry grazed areas with scattered trees and bushes, woods and vineyards in a hilly zone. - POSITION: Poderone near Magliano in Toscana, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°17'- ALTITUDE: +130 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Gallop call, common during breeding season. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT : this call is uttered almost only during breeding season, with a peak in spring and a sustained activity in summer, while it is rarely heard at the pre-migratory roosts during fall. Check also the paper about Stone curlew call repertoire, which you can find at the Specific Studies page. - MIC: (U)
recording 1 (257 KB) - * - spectrogram 1 (22 KB)
RECORDING 2
DATE/TIME: 16/march/2007 (7 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: A Stone curlew is on the ground in a hilly zone near Perotto Lake, characterized by grazed meadows and uncultivated fields with scattered bushes. - POSITION: Hills near Perotto Lake, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°15'- ALTITUDE: +200 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Two variant of kurlee calls (rolled and bitonal kurlee) - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: The second and third calls are the tritonal version with a rolled part in the middle (rolled kurlee), while the first call is a bitonal variant without a rolled part (bitonal kurlee). Probably the bird is on the breeding ground: in the neighbouring hills there are many other Stone curlews calling. - MIC: (A)
recording 2 (200 KB) - * - spectrogram 2 (30 KB)
RECORDING 3
DATE/TIME: 23/december/2005 (11 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: One bird is on a flat ground (meadow) with grazing horses. - POSITION: Uccellina Regional Park near Ombrone estuary, LAT.N 42°39' / LONG.E 11°01'- ALTITUDE: +0 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Gallop call. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: This call was elicited by playback stimulation. The bird answered to the same call type (gallop). - MIC: (A)
recording 3 (267 KB) - * - spectrogram 3 (38 KB)
RECORDING 4
DATE/TIME: 16/march/2007 (7 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Same bird as in Recording 2 and same location - POSITION: Hills near Perotto Lake, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°15'- ALTITUDE: +200 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Strangled call. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: This call was uttered all year round, either spontaneously or after playback stimulation. In this case it was recorded on breeding ground. - MIC: (A)
recording 4 (208 KB) - * - spectrogram 4 (40 KB)
RECORDING 5
DATE/TIME: 18/december/2004 (9 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: One bird is foraging close to a sheep flock in a grazed meadow (hilly zone near the Ombrone river). After playback stimulation the bird flies off approaching the recordist and calls. - POSITION: Near Campagnatico village, LAT.N 42°49'/LONG.E 11°14'- ALTITUDE: +50 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Bitonal whistle (alarm call). - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: The bird uttered this call in flight, probably when it was frightened by the view of the recordist. - MIC: (A)
recording 5 (146 KB) - * - spectrogram 5 (18 KB)
RECORDING 6
DATE/TIME: 10/april/2009 (9 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Two or three birds are on the ground in a hilly zone near Perotto Lake, characterized by grazed meadows and uncultivated fields with scattered bushes. - POSITION: Hills near Perotto Lake, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°15'- ALTITUDE: +200 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: A brief series of simple whistles. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: This is the "long" variant of simple whistle and it was recorded on breeding ground. - MIC: (P)
recording 6 (203 KB) - * - spectrogram 6 (16 KB)
RECORDING 7
DATE/TIME: 25/may/2007 (4.30 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: One bird is on the ground in a recently tilled field. Around there are grazed areas with scattered trees, woods and vineyards in a hilly zone. - POSITION: Poderone near Magliano in Toscana, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°17'- ALTITUDE: +130 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: A strangled variant of kurlee call (strangled kurlee) alternated with bitonal kurlee (see also Recording 2) and introduced by one simple whistle (see Recording 6). - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: This call was uttered one hour before dawn. In the background of the audio sample: frogs and Scops owl calls. - MIC: (A)
recording 7 (232 KB) - * - spectrogram 7 (39 KB)
RECORDING 8
DATE/TIME: 9/july/2009 (9.45 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Dry gravel riverbed of Taro river: there is one nest with eggs and a second bird pair with two chicks. A fox is walking and hunting on the riverbed. The adult stone curlews begin to call. - POSITION: Taro River Regional Park, Collecchio LAT.N 44°74'/LONG.E 10°17'- ALTITUDE: +50 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: High-frequency trill. This is an alarm call towards potential ground predators. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: These adult alarm calls are associated with distraction display which drives the fox away from nest and chicks. - MIC: (P)
recording 8 (924 KB) - * - spectrogram 8 (84 KB)
RECORDING 9
DATE/TIME: 30/december/2010 (5.30 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: About 100 Stone curlews are roosting in a vineyard. After sunset they become active and call before leaving the roosting place. - POSITION: La Capitana farm near Magliano in Toscana, LAT.N 42°39' / LONG.E 11°16' - ALTITUDE: +250 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Simple whistle, whit calls and polytonal whistles. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: These brief vocalizations are typical for winter roosts. Stone curlews utter these calls shortly before leaving the roosting place and flying to foraging sites. Time interval between calls has been reduced in the audio sample and in the spectrograms; true intervals: 3 s, 10 s, 2 s (see spectrograms). - MIC: (P)
recording 9 (528 KB) - * - spectrogram 9 (36 KB)
RECORDING 10
DATE/TIME: 10/april/2009 (8.30 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Same place and same birds as for Recording 6. - POSITION: Hills near Perotto Lake, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°15'- ALTITUDE: +200 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: A brief intro trill which intruduces a kurlee bout. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: Intro trill is a rare and subdued call. Here it begins a typical call sequence which carachterizes a kurlee bout: three simple whistles, two bitonal kurlee and a rolled kurlee follow the trill. The sequence is closed by one mixed call (strangled + whit call)and by two barely audible whit calls. I recorded this call sequence on breeding ground. - MIC: (P)
recording 10 (444 KB) - * - spectrogram 10 (64 KB)
RECORDING 11
DATE/TIME: 19/march/2008 (7.15 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Two birds are on the ground in an uncultivated land. Around there are grazed areas with scattered trees, woods and vineyards in a hilly zone. - POSITION: Poderone near Magliano in Toscana, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°17'- ALTITUDE: +130 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: A series of high-frequency whistles. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: This call is a quite uncommon vocalization. This series was recorded at the end of a gallop call bout on breeding ground. - MIC: (P)
recording 11 (384 KB) - * - spectrogram 11 (32 KB)
RECORDING 12
DATE/TIME: 19/march/2008 (7.15 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Same birds in the same place as for Recording 11. - POSITION: Poderone near Magliano in Toscana, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°17'- ALTITUDE: +130 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: A gallop call bout carachterized by bisyllabic phrases mixed with more typical trisyllabic ones. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: Some authors categorize the bisyllabic variant of gallop call as a separate vocalization, called ker-vick call. In this recording I show that some bisyllabic phrases (green circles in the spectrograms) are uttered together with typical trisyllabic ones. This fact supports my own categorization, that considers the bisyllabic variant as a simple sub-type of gallop call and not a different call type. - MIC: (P)
recording 12 (892 KB) - * - spectrogram 12 (88 KB)
RECORDING 13
DATE/TIME: 9/may/2009 (10.30 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Two stone curlews answer to playback stimulation. They are in a grazed meadow near the dry gravel bed of the river Albegna. The birds are quite excited after playback. - POSITION: Colle di Lupo near Albegna river, LAT.N 42°34'/LONG.E 11°22'- ALTITUDE: +30 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: This is an example of mixed call. A gallop call bout gradually becomes more and more similar to a strangled call. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: The categorization of some call types is particularly puzzling, because some vocalizations are a mix of different call types. In this case we have a mix of gallop and strangled call; note the last syllables of the recording: they still have the rhythm of gallop call, but the sound is almost completely strangled. - MIC: (P)
recording 13 (860 KB) - * - spectrogram 13 (80 KB)
RECORDING 14
DATE/TIME: 20/march/2008 (9 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: One bird is on the ground in an olive grove. Around there are grazed areas with scattered trees, woods and vineyards. - POSITION: Poderone near Magliano in Toscana, LAT.N 42°36'/LONG.E 11°17'- ALTITUDE: +130 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: This is another example of mixed call. High-frequency whistle is combined with strangled call. - SEX/AGE: unknown - COMMENT: In this case we have a mix of high-frequency whistle and strangled call for the first three calls, while the remaining two are typical high-frequency whistles. - MIC: (P)
recording 14 (308 KB) - * - spectrogram 14 (36 KB)
RECORDING 15
DATE/TIME: 12/july/2009 (1 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Dry gravel riverbed of Taro River; after ringing procedures one stone curlew chick was placed in a small wooden arena and recorded for about 15 minutes with a microphone placed 30 cm away. One adult bird approached the arena and called several times eliciting a vocal answer of the chick. - POSITION: Taro River Regional Park, Collecchio LAT.N 44°74'/LONG.E 10°17'- ALTITUDE: +50 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: The chick uttered a brief strangled sound with broadband frequency, while the adult bird answered to chick with a vocalization resembling the strangled call (see Recording 4), but with lower tone and lower volume. - SEX/AGE: 10 days old chick and adult of unknown age and sex - COMMENT: This chick call, defined as S-call, is typical of the young stone curlew repertoire and often uttered when parents and chicks are at close quarter. The adult call is soft and audible only at close quarter. Stone curlews use it as vocal contact when their chicks are nearby. This recording was kindly provided by Dimitri Giunchi and Chiara Caccamo (Departement of Biology, Pisa University) - MIC: (Sennheiser M67 + Fostex FR2-LE)
recording 15 (680 KB) - * - spectrogram 15 (92 KB)
RECORDING 16
DATE/TIME: 9/july/2009 (0.30 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Dry gravel riverbed of Taro River; after ringing procedures one stone curlew chick was recorded as for Call 15. - POSITION: Taro River Regional Park, Collecchio LAT.N 44°74'/LONG.E 10°17'- ALTITUDE: +50 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: The chick uttered a chirping call with a complex tonal-harmonic structure. At the beginning of the recording a far adult bird, uttering a kurlee call, stimulates the chick vocal answer. - SEX/AGE: 20 days old chick and adult of unknown age and sex. - COMMENT: This chick vocalization, defined as C-call, is another main call type of the young stone curlew repertoire. As in this recording, the C-call is often stimulated by adult kurlee call. Time intervals between chick calls have been reduced in the audio sample and in the spectrograms; true average time interval = 11.7 s (S.D.= 7.4; range= 5/36; n= 29).This recording was kindly provided by Dimitri Giunchi and Chiara Caccamo (Departement of Biology, Pisa University) - MIC: (Sennheiser M67 + Fostex FR2-LE)
recording 16 (608 KB) - * - spectrogram 16 (48 KB)
RECORDING 17
DATE/TIME: 8/july/2009 (7 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: There was a nest with two eggs ready to hatch in the dry gravel riverbed of Taro River. I have recorded the piping eggs. - POSITION: Taro River Regional Park, Collecchio LAT.N 44°74'/LONG.E 10°17' - ALTITUDE: +50 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: S-call and C-call, which are the two main call types of chick repertoire. - SEX/AGE: one day before hatching, unknown sex. - COMMENT: Note that the morphology of these two calls is already well developed before hatching. These call do not change their main carachteristics in young birds from 0 to more than 50 days old (check Recordings 18, 16 and 15). This audio sample represents only a short cut extracted from a longer recording. Time interval between calls has been reduced; true average interval: 9 s (S.D.= 5.5; range= 4/21; n= 15). - MIC: (P)
recording 17 (348 KB) - * - spectrogram 17 (28 KB)
RECORDING 18
DATE/TIME: 22/october/2010 (7 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: This is a recording from a captive Stone curlew chick kept in an external aviary of the CRASM (recovery center of wild animals owned by WWF-Italia). - POSITION: Semproniano, LAT.N 42°42'/LONG.E 11°32'- ALTITUDE: +450 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: S-call and C-call, which are the two main call types of chick repertoire. - SEX/AGE: 50 days old chick of unknown sex. - COMMENT: Note that the morphology of these calls is much the same as for chicks aged 0, 10 or 20 days (check Recordings 17, 16 and 15). However, it must be said that after the age of 35/45 days (the age of voice breaking - see Recording 19) there is a progressive decrease of the use of these typical chick calls. This audio sample represents only a short cut extracted from a longer recording. Time interval between calls has been reduced; true average interval: 24 s (S.D.= 21.7; range= 6/107; n= 25). I am grateful to Dr. Marco Aloisi, chief of the CRASM, who allowed me recording the captive chick. - MIC: (P)
recording 18 (564 KB) - * - spectrogram 18 (24 KB)
RECORDING 19
DATE/TIME: from 7 to 28/august/2011 (4 to 6 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: These were recordings from two captive Stone curlew chicks as for Recording 18. - POSITION: Semproniano, LAT.N 42°42'/LONG.E 11°32'- ALTITUDE: +450 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Voice breaking and vocal development in young stone curlews. - SEX/AGE: from 39 to 60 days old chicks of unknown sex. - COMMENT: As previously stated, Stone curlew chicks showed two main call types: S-call and C-call (check Recordings 15, 16, 17 and 18). When 35/45 days old, they begin to utter some other vocalizations, like whistling sounds that recalls the modulation of a kurlee syllable or strange nasal sounds that have no correspondance to any adult call. In other words they get a voice breaking phase and, after that, they begin a progressive increase of the attempts to utter some adult calls. At the end of this transition stage the young birds are able to utter a nearly perfect kurlee call. For a precise description of all the calls recorded in this audio sample check the spectrogram page. - MIC: (P)
recording 19 (740 KB) - * - spectrogram 19 (120 KB)
RECORDING 20
DATE/TIME: 1/august/2008 (8 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: One chick was manipulated and ringed in the Taro River Regional Park. The ringing activity was part of a research project carried out by Pisa University (Dept. of Biology) - POSITION: Taro River Regional Park, Collecchio LAT.N 44°74'/LONG.E 10°17' - ALTITUDE: +50 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Distress calls during manipulation and C-calls after release. - SEX/AGE: chick aged about 10-20 days, sex unknown. - COMMENT: At the end of the ringing process, the chick was released in the gravel bed of Taro river. The audio sample is part of a longer recording (see spectrograms to check cut parts). This recording was kindly provided by Dimitri Giunchi and Chiara Caccamo (Departement of Biology, Pisa University) - MIC: (Sennheiser M67 and Sony MiniDisc MZ-R30).
recording 20 (274 KB) - * - spectrogram 20 (126 KB)
RECORDING 21
DATE/TIME: 23/may/2021 (5.50 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: A nest site inside Souss-Massa National Parc, with an adult Stone-Curlew incubating its eggs and the partner guarding nearby. A Barbary falcon flies above the site and lands near the nest. The guarding bird reacts and chases the falcon. - POSITION: Souss-Massa National Parc, Takad, Agadir, Morocco LAT.N 30°12'/LONG.E 9°37' - ALTITUDE: +70 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: Distress calls during the attack of a potential predator. - SEX/AGE: adult bird, sex unknown. - COMMENT: When the guarding bird runs to chase the falcon, it utters two long distress calls and the falcon flies off. It is very interesting to note that the distress call of an adult bird is exactly the same than that uttered by a chick (see Recording 20), the adult call being only a bit longer and obviously slightly lower pitched than that of the chick. This recording was kindly provided by Mohamed Aourir and Yassine Teryar, Agadir University – Faculty of Sciences. - MIC: (AudioMoth with internal microphone, cut off frequency 0.5 kHz, 48 kHz sampling frequency).
recording 21 (161 KB) - * - spectrogram 21 (136 KB)