Galloanserae

Two different hens at Peck's Lake [Arizona] in October, 1997.

The male Wood Duck call is a strange high squeak.

Pintails (Anas acuta) squeak and quack at Peck's Lake [Arizona] in March, 1998. The peeping sound is heard most frequently, but they do quack, as at the end of this sample.

Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca) are beautiful Winter homesteaders at Tavasci Marsh [Arizona]. In this sample we hear the males' flight sound and peeping song as they rocket off the surface of the water.

A pair of Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera) (the Latin name refers to the large blue patch on the top front of their wing) dabble in the pond at Tavasci Marsh [Arizona], Spring 1998. This is the female, who, like most ducks, talks the most and the loudest! The sharp-eared listener will also hear Red-winged Blackbirds, a Song Sparrow and a Least Bittern in this sample.

Male dabbling around in Tavasci Marsh [Arizona]. His quacks are rather more quiet and reserved than the female's.

This pair of females (the females do all the quacking) was recorded at Peck's Lake [Arizona]. In this sample you'll hear them take off and then quack as they circle the lake.

Ring-necked Ducks spend the Winter in Peck's Lake [Arizona], sometimes in the hundreds. Their normal call is a croaky, "fuzzy" quack.

A gaggle of16 Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) flies overhead at Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands.

Muscovy Ducks (Cairina moschata) are seldom heard at all! These were flying into that marsh 10 Mi. north of Quepos (Costa Rica).

California Quail (Callipepla californica) are the common quail of southern California. These cocks were calling in the brush around Carmel Valley Road, East of Carmel, April, 1999.

A cock Gambel's Quail (Callipepla gambelii) perches in the highest tree in his territory and issues this single note call. My Dad and I called this call the "nesting call" because we heard it continuously during the breeding and brooding season (May to July). My casual observations, though, now seem to indicate that this call is put out there by bachelor males advertising for a mate. I have not observed a cock who has a hen with him calling this way, nor have I heard a cock with young calling this note.

Gambels quail are heard the world over in every Western movie ever made. Here are two examples of their "gathering call" which you all knew, just didn't know you knew!

Gambel's Quail are some of the most vocally expressive birds. They have specific vocalizations for lots of situations you and I would recognize easily. In this sample a small covey feeds in the underbrush and discusses the neighborhood news. This clucking helps keep the covey together and appears to have some "pecking order" functions.

Here a father Gambel's Quail teaches his sons about the appropriate time to crow. The youngsters are crowing in response to another youngster a few hundred meters away, but we are too close, and the father "hushes" the adolescent enthusiasm with a harsh "cluck" just as the young one crows. He does this four times in this sample, but he did it over and over until the student stopped.

A male Gambel's Quail worries over his brood, and takes flight at the last moment. The first vocalizations are common to both sexes while they're raising their kids. These sounds seem to be used to tie the family together, and to indicate to the children that they should be alert. The flight sound of this guy is well known to anyone in the Southwest US. It is a combination of wing noise and vocalization - quite startling if you don't expect it!

This is the rattling alarm call (and most commonly-heard sound) of a Black Guan (Chamaepetes unicolor), as he escapes from our path in the Monteverde Preserve (Costa Rica), 6/16/99.

This Spot-bellied Bobwhite (Colinus leucopogon) was recorded in a vacant field across from the Hampton Inn parking lot in Alahuela (Costa Rica), 6/17/99. He was sitting in the top of a small shrub right in the middle of the traffic & hubbub of the city! This species is sometimes lumped with Colinus cristatus.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis): This is a short sample. These ducks were very common around Manuel Antonio and the Pacific coast (Costa Rica)

Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis): This is a longer sample. These ducks were very common around Manuel Antonio and the Pacific coast (Costa Rica).

A Domestic Rooster crows one May afternoon at Page Springs [Arizona].

A covy of Black-breasted Wood-Quail (Odontophorus leucolaemus) call in the distance at Cabinas el Bosque, Monteverde (Costa Rica), 6/17/99.

In this recording a single Black-breasted Wood-Quail (Odontophorus leucolaemus) calls - this is a bit unusual, as they normally call in a chorus.(Costa Rica)

A Gray-headed Chacalaca (Ortalis cinereiceps) family perched in the tall brush at the No. end of Lake Arenal (Costa Rica). Both parents and three youngsters were there. We saw the same (or an identical) family in the same location three days earlier.