A comparison of the alarm calls of five species of African lovebirds: genus Agapornis

Abstract

We compared the bioacoustic structure of the alarm calls of five species of African lovebirds, genus Agapornis (A. roseicollis, A. lilianae, A. nigrigenis, A. personatus and A. fischeri). The calls were analysed for interspecific and gender differences. The calls comprised a series of rapidly-repeated elements composed of several harmonics. The eleven temporal and sound frequency parameters showed significant differences among the species and between the sexes. Principal components and cluster analyses demonstrated that species belonging to the same taxon grouped together by their call characters. The alarm calls differed between species and were used to construct an acoustic phylogeny that matched the accepted genetic and morphological phylogenies. Agapornis roseicollis is a close relative of the white-eye-ring species, with lilianae–nigrigenis and personatus–fischeri clustering together as sibling species, as proposed by genetic, morphological and behavioural characteristics. Reversed sex differences in call parameters were associated with reversed body size differences between the sexes.

Keywords:

• parrot
• vocalisation
• phylogeny
• comparative biology
• behaviour

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The National Research Foundation provided funding for this project. Stuart Taylor offered invaluable help at the start of this project, both with the technical aspects of sound recording and the use of software. He and Edith Dempster also read drafts of the manuscript and we thank them for their helpful comments and suggestions. We are grateful to Mark Brown for helping with the capture of birds and for always willingly providing assistance whenever it was needed.