Eastern whipbird
Chapter 10: More birds! More Sounds!
Subchapter: More birds! More Sounds!—Australia
From page 170 in the book.
He begins with the most modest of soft, pure-toned notes, ee ee eeeeeeeeee, then cracks the whip in one of the most distinctive, unmistakable songs heard in eastern Australia.
♫725. Listen to all 11 minutes and you hear that this male has at least three different songs. The introductory notes of the first three songs are at about 2 kHz, the next six much lower at about 1 kHz, the next 16 much higher, well above 4 kHz. He then drops back down to the 1 kHz song again, offering three songs there. After each of the last two songs, the female responds with a strong pair of descending notes, chew-chew, after which he stops singing. You might also have noticed that the nature of the whipcrack differs; the whipcrack in the first three songs glides down the scale, whereas the whipcrack in all others slides up. November 5, 2007. O'Reilly's Guest House, Lamington National Park, Queensland. (10:56)
♫726. The same recording but with much of the silence between the songs removed. If you'd like to hear more bird and less silence, listen here. (2:14)