RECORDING 1
DATE/TIME: 18/september/2004 (10 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: one bird calls from an artificial mixed copse (pines, oaks, ashes, cypresses) near the banks of the lake. After several minutes of uninterrupted vocalization, it flies into a willow wood and calls again. - POSITION: Perotto Lake (an artificial basin with a dam), LAT.N 42°37'/LONG.E 11°15' - ALTITUDE: +70 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: advertising call (territorial) elicited by a playback of conspecific call. - SEX/AGE: adult male - COMMENT: the response to playback was particularly strong: the owl answered immediately to playback, approached quickly the recorder and flew over my head. It called about 30 minutes after the playback stimulus. - MIC: (A)
recording 1 (163 KB) - * - spectrogram 1 (30 KB)
RECORDING 2
DATE/TIME: 17/june/2006 (10.30 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: the owl - not seen - is perched in a deciduos wood. Hilly zone with cutivated land and woods. - POSITION: Capanne (Massa Marittima - GR), LAT.N 43°02'/LONG.E 10°88' - ALTITUDE: +180 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: advertising call (territorial). - SEX/AGE: adult male - COMMENT: The owl calls spontaneously. Time interval between calls has been reduced in the audio sample and in the spectrograms. Average interval between calls: 13.8 s (S.D. = 1.37; range = 12.1 / 15.2; n = 4) - MIC: (A)
recording 2 (533 KB) - * - spectrogram 2 (60 KB)
RECORDING 3
DATE/TIME: 22/may/2010 (10.30 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: the owl - not seen - is perched in a mainly deciduos wood. Zone with small grazed meadows and woods. - POSITION: Cornacchino near Selvena, LAT.N 42°76'/LONG.E 11°66' - ALTITUDE: +850 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: advertising call (territorial). - SEX/AGE: adult male - COMMENT: The owl calls in response to playback of conspecific territorial call. Time interval between calls has been reduced in the audio sample and in the spectrograms. Average interval between calls: 10.9 s (S.D. = 1.91; range = 8.4 / 13.6; n = 9) - MIC: (P)
recording 3 (795 KB) - * - spectrogram 3 (60 KB)
RECORDING 4
DATE/TIME: 9/july/2011 (10.00 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: the owl - not seen - is perched in a thick deciduos wood on the top of a mountain. Zone with wide and thick woods. - POSITION: woods over the village of Montevitozzo, LAT.N 42°74'/LONG.E 11°69' - ALTITUDE: +800 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: chicks and male calls. - SEX/AGE: chicks still not fledged, sex unknown - COMMENT: Chicks utter two different call types (see spectrograms) and male owl answers to playback stimulation. Background: crickets (erased from spectrograms). - MIC: (P)
recording 4 (670 KB) - * - spectrogram 4 (170 KB)
RECORDING 5
DATE/TIME: 22/october/2011 (11.00 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: the owls - not seen - are perched near a road that goes across a wide mixed forest. Zone with wide and thick woods. - POSITION: a forest near Selvena (GR), LAT.N 42°78'/LONG.E 11°64' - ALTITUDE: +830 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: calls of female and male in response to playback of conspecific. - SEX/AGE: adult female and male - COMMENT: The birds are quite far from the microphone. Female calls are at least of two different types and seem a reinforcement of territorial defense provided by male calls (check spectrograms). Note that there is also a wing clapping, made by one or both the pair members. - MIC: (P)
recording 5 (420 KB) - * - spectrogram 5 (75 KB)
RECORDING 6
DATE/TIME: 22/october/2011 (10.30 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: same birds as for Recording 5 in the same place. - POSITION: a forest near Selvena (GR), LAT.N 42°78'/LONG.E 11°64' - ALTITUDE: +830 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: calls of female in response to playback of conspecific. - SEX/AGE: adult female - COMMENT: The birds are quite far from the microphone. Female calls are at least of two different types; one type is the same as for Recording 5 (at the end of the cut) and the other is a "new" one. - MIC: (P)
recording 6 (970 KB) - * - spectrogram 6 (75 KB)
RECORDING 7
DATE/TIME: 22/october/2011 (11.15 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: same birds as for Recording 5 in the same place. - POSITION: a forest near Selvena (GR), LAT.N 42°78'/LONG.E 11°64' - ALTITUDE: +830 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: male territorial call in response to playback of conspecific. - SEX/AGE: adult male - COMMENT: Time interval between calls has been reduced in the audio sample and in the spectrograms. Average interval between calls: 15.0 s (S.D. = 2.54; range = 13 / 17.9; n = 3). Background: barking dog. - MIC: (P)
recording 7 (460 KB) - * - spectrogram 7 (50 KB)
RECORDING 8
DATE/TIME: 13/may/2017 (11 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: The birds - not in sight - are in a deciduous forest of a mountain valley. - POSITION: Mount Labbro, LAT. N. 42 48'/ LONG. E 11 33' - ALTITUDE: +1000 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: male bubbling calls and female calls. - SEX/AGE: adult male and female - COMMENT: The birds are quite far from the microphone, therefore sound amplitude is relatively low. Background: Amphibian calls, human voices and barking dog. - MIC: (P)
recording 8 (336 KB) - * - spectrogram 8 (87 KB)
RECORDING 9
DATE/TIME: 13/february/2019 (5.55 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: One pair - not in sight - is in an artificial mixed copse (pines, oaks, ashes, cypresses) on the west bank of the lake. From the east bank a rival male calls several times. - POSITION: Perotto Lake (an artificial basin with a dam), LAT.N 42°37'/LONG.E 11°15' - ALTITUDE: +70 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: male excited hoots, bubbling call and an unusual call type (from female?). - SEX/AGE: adult male (and female?) - COMMENT: About ten minutes before this recording, there was a vocal duet between male and female of the recorded pair, then the rival male started hooting from the opposite (east) bank of the lake. In this recording the male of the west bank answered very excited to the rival, with short phrases made by four syllables instead of the normal three ones (see spectrograms). The second phrase ends with a long bubbling call, after that there is a barking call, maybe from the female or from the male itself. At the end of the recording the rival male from the east bank is heard again in background. This recording was made with an unattended automatic apparatus. - MIC: (WA)
recording 9 (134 KB) - * - spectrogram 9 (77 KB)
RECORDING 10
DATE/TIME: 13/february/2019 (6.20 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: Same place as above and same pair of birds (not in sight). - POSITION: Perotto Lake (an artificial basin with a dam), LAT.N 42°37'/LONG.E 11°15' - ALTITUDE: +70 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: male excited hoots, duet with the female, bubbling call, female calls. - SEX/AGE: adult male and female. - COMMENT: The audio sample starts with some female calls and a duet male - female. Note that the first male phrase is made by three syllables (see spectrograms) as typical for the species. After a few seconds there are some very excited calls both by male and female. This phase ends with a faster and faster call series uttered by the female and long bubbling calls by the male. Probably a copulation takes place in this moment or at least a very strong courtship ceremony. Afterwards the excitation decreases, altough the male utters again some bubbling calls. A this point the audio sample was cut for 20 seconds (see spectrogram). After the cut there is a fast series of excited male calls and two female calls on background. This audio sample is part of a longer recording, that was made with an unattended automatic apparatus. Background: amphibian and Hooded-crow calls. - MIC: (WA)
recording 10 (1059 KB) - * - spectrogram 10 (337 KB)
RECORDING 11
DATE/TIME: 2/march/2021 (4 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: The birds - not in sight - are in an artificial mixed copse (pines, oaks, ashes, cypresses) on the bank of the lake. - POSITION: Perotto Lake (an artificial basin with a dam), LAT.N 42°37'/LONG.E 11°15' - ALTITUDE: +70 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: male calls and female(?)calls. - SEX/AGE: adult birds - COMMENT: The birds are quite far from the microphone, therefore sound amplitude is relatively low. There are three typical hooting calls and an unusual single syllable of a male bird. These calls are mixed with very strange barking vocalisations, maybe from a female (see spectrograms). I didn't find a description of such call types in the literature. The sound sample was cut several times (check spectrogram time axis). The recording was made with an unattended automatic apparatus. - MIC: (WA)
recording 11 (356 KB) - * - spectrogram 11 (57 KB)
RECORDING 12
DATE/TIME: 2/march/2021 (5.30 a.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: The bird - not in sight - is in the same place as above. - POSITION: Perotto Lake (an artificial basin with a dam), LAT.N 42°37'/LONG.E 11°15' - ALTITUDE: +70 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: female calls. - SEX/AGE: adult female - COMMENT: Probably the female belongs to the same pair of the previous recording. This is a series of typical whistling/mewing calls, but note that there are some slight differences among the single calls of the series (see last spectrogram). The audio sample is part of a longer recording, see spectrogram time axis to check the cut parts. The recording was made with an unattended automatic apparatus. Background: Teal, Hooded-crow, Jackdaw - MIC: (WA)
recording 12 (1218 KB) - * - spectrogram 12 (54 KB)
RECORDING 13
DATE/TIME: 19/november/2021 (6.30 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: The bird - not in sight - is hidden in a deciduous forest near a farm house. - POSITION: Poderone near Magliano in Toscana, LAT.N 42 36'/LONG.E 11 17'- ALTITUDE: +130 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: male calls of different types. - SEX/AGE: young(?) male - COMMENT: This bird is able to produce the typical trisyllabic call, but it sometimes calls in an unusual way omitting the second syllable or using a single syllable or producing a quite uncommon polysyllabic vocalisation (see spectrograms). The audio sample is part of a longer recording, time interval among calls has been reduced in the audio file and recording was stopped for 30 seconds (see spectrogram time axis to understand the real time intervals). Background: orthoptera and noise of tree branches moved by wind. As the recording was made in autumn, maybe the bird is a young Tawny owl searching for a territory. - MIC: (P with Tascam DR100-MKIII)
recording 13 (1390 KB) - * - spectrogram 13 (131 KB)
RECORDING 14
DATE/TIME: 31/october/2022 (8 p.m.) - IDENTIFICATION AND BEHAVIOUR: The bird - not in sight - is hidden in a hedgerow with trees near a deciduous forest. - POSITION: Poderone near Magliano in Toscana, LAT.N 42 36'/LONG.E 11 17'- ALTITUDE: +130 m. - VOCALIZATION TYPE: typical male calls. - SEX/AGE: male of unknown age. - COMMENT: The audio sample is part of a longer recording, time interval among calls has been reduced in the audio file and before the last call the audio was cut for 95 seconds (see spectrogram time axis). The recording was made with an unattended automatic apparatus. - MIC: (WA)
recording 14 (427 KB) - * - spectrogram 14 (50 KB)