The song of the Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, , in the Bamenda Highlands (NW Cameroon)
Résumé
In this study, I describe the song of the Cinnamon-breasted Bunting ()--a common and widespread species in sub-Saharan Africa. Several aspects of song behaviour were addressed based on recordings of 58 males in the Bamenda Highlands (NW Cameroon). The song of the Cinnamon-breasted Bunting is discontinuous and consists of short (1.2 s on average), relatively broadband (range 2.5-9.2 kHz) strophes repeated at a highly variable rate (2-14 strophes per minute). Each male sang a single song type consisting of 4-9 different syllable types. Syllable types differed in acoustic structure, and I describe a total of 40 discrete types. At the song type level, only 8 different song types were found. Males from local groups tended to have slightly more similar songs than strangers separated by a distance of more than 500 m. However, males with shared song types clearly did not aggregate. All males within the studied population shared a characteristic final whistle syllable, which resemble some other buntings. The birds sang from locations elevated above the surrounding vegetation, usually from trees or rocks. I found no significant relationship between song rate, time after sunrise, time of season and song post height.
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