Repertoire of the acoustic communication of the azure jay Cyanocorax caeruleus (Vieillot) (Aves, Corvidae)

Anjos, Luiz dos; Vielliard, Jacques M. E.

doi:10.1590/S0101-81751993000400011

Abstract

The vocal repertoire of the Azure Jay Cyanocorax caeruleus (Vieillot, 1818) is approached from a quali-quantitative point of view. The qualitative analysis was carried out both in the field and in captivity: the quantitative analysis was made only in captivity. Social acoustic communication in the Azure Jay is achieved through the use of two types of call: basic and intermediate calls. Fourteen basic calls are identified and presented through sonograms: the sotto voce song (courtship call) is related only to courtship and the social call is interpreted as the song in the Azure Jay. The intermediate calls are recombinations of the basic calls uttered during an alteration in motivation level. Examples of them are presented through sonograms of vocalizations recorded during mobbing predators and intraspecific agonistic contexts. The social, social-alarm, contact, flight, proximity, threat and social identity calls were those most frequently uttered by daylight: the other calls represented around 15% of the total number of utterances. The hypothesis of the evolution in American Jays, which tends to simplification of vocal repertoire (HARDY, 1961; 1969), is analysed; C. caeruleus seems to have a small actively-used repertoire.

Aves; Corvidae; Cyanocorax caeruleus; repertoire; behavior

Repertoire of the acoustic communication of the azure jay Cyanocorax caeruleus (Vieillot) (Aves, Corvidae)

Luiz dos Anjos^I; Jacques M. E. Vielliard^II

^IDepartamento de Biologia Animal e Vegetal, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Caixa Postal 6001, 86051-970 Londrina, Paraná, Brasil

^IIDepartamento de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Caixa Postal 6109, 13081-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brasil

ABSTRACT

The vocal repertoire of the Azure Jay Cyanocorax caeruleus (Vieillot, 1818) is approached from a quali-quantitative point of view. The qualitative analysis was carried out both in the field and in captivity: the quantitative analysis was made only in captivity. Social acoustic communication in the Azure Jay is achieved through the use of two types of call: basic and intermediate calls. Fourteen basic calls are identified and presented through sonograms: the sotto voce song (courtship call) is related only to courtship and the social call is interpreted as the song in the Azure Jay. The intermediate calls are recombinations of the basic calls uttered during an alteration in motivation level. Examples of them are presented through sonograms of vocalizations recorded during mobbing predators and intraspecific agonistic contexts. The social, social-alarm, contact, flight, proximity, threat and social identity calls were those most frequently uttered by daylight: the other calls represented around 15% of the total number of utterances. The hypothesis of the evolution in American Jays, which tends to simplification of vocal repertoire (HARDY, 1961; 1969), is analysed; C. caeruleus seems to have a small actively-used repertoire.

Key words: Aves, Corvidae, Cyanocorax caeruleus, repertoire, behavior

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I am grateful to Drs. J.W. Hardy, R.B. Payne and R. Kettle for reviewing the manuscript and making many comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to Drs. V. Graf and J. de Loyola e Silva of the Curso de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, where apresented my Master degree thesis of which this manuscript is a part and to M.H.N. Iwersen for revising the English. Financial support was provided by CAPES (Coordenadoria de Aperfeioamento de Pessoal de Ensino Superior).

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Recebido em 11.X.1993; aceito em 28.II.1994.

GREENEWALT, C.H. 1968. Bird song: acoustics and physiology. Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 194p.
HARDY, J.W. 1961. Studies in behaviour and phylogeny of certain New World Jays (Garrulinae). University of Kansas Science Bulletin, 62 (2):13-149.
______. 1969. A taxonomic revision of the New World Jays. Condor 71:360-375.
______. 1974. Behaviour and its evolution in Neotropical Jays (Cissilopha). Bird-Banding 45 (3):253-270.
______. 1984. Voices of New World Jays, Crows & theirallies: Family Corvidae. Gainesville, Florida, ARA Records-9.
MORTON, E.S. 1977. On the occurence and significance of motivation structural rules in some bird and mammal sounds. Am. Nat. 111:855-869.
VIELLIARD, J.M.E. 1986. O uso da Bioacústica na Observação de Aves. In: Anais do II Encontro Nacional de Anilhadores de Aves, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, p.98-121.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
22 July 2009
Date of issue
1993

History

Received
11 Oct 1993
Accepted
28 Feb 1994

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

[1] GREENEWALT, C.H. 1968. Bird song: acoustics and physiology. Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 194p.

[2] HARDY, J.W. 1961. Studies in behaviour and phylogeny of certain New World Jays (Garrulinae). University of Kansas Science Bulletin, 62 (2):13-149.

[3] ______. 1969. A taxonomic revision of the New World Jays. Condor 71:360-375.

[4] ______. 1974. Behaviour and its evolution in Neotropical Jays (Cissilopha). Bird-Banding 45 (3):253-270.

[5] ______. 1984. Voices of New World Jays, Crows & theirallies: Family Corvidae. Gainesville, Florida, ARA Records-9.

[6] MORTON, E.S. 1977. On the occurence and significance of motivation structural rules in some bird and mammal sounds. Am. Nat. 111:855-869.

[7] VIELLIARD, J.M.E. 1986. O uso da Bioacústica na Observação de Aves. In: Anais do II Encontro Nacional de Anilhadores de Aves, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, p.98-121.