Nakanoshima Tairajima
Tokara Islands Southern Japan
May9-22 2005

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Status Birdlife Asia , 2
More in Detail ( Phyllon's personal Site )
Location : Nakanoshima

1 [ Long MP3 342KB ] Song and call , ringed individual
2 [ Long MP3 489KB ] Song , ringed individual
3 [ Long MP3 514KB ] North-east track
4 [ Long MP3 534KB ] near " Yosukeiwa "

1 [ Long MP3 302KB ] ringed individual
2 [ Long MP3 397KB ] : near " Yosukeiwa" 12 May Nakanoshima

Eastern Crowned Warbler Phylloscopus coronatus and
Ijima's Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus ijimae call spectrograms.

I have recently had the opportunity to record and spectogram the contact
calls of both these species on Nakanoshima Island in southern Japan. The
island is one of the few known breeding sites of Ijima`s Leaf Warbler
Phylloscopus ijimae, and is also a good site for migrating Eastern Crowned
Warbler Phylloscopus coronatus. The songs of either species are completely different,
but greater familiarity of their calls is needed. While the calls of either
species are similar to the ear, their differences are highlighted in the
spectograms.
I cannot claim to fully understand this software, but I was able to make the
graphs shown below.
The Ijima`s Leaf Warbler call duration is comparitively straight, within a range of 5khz.
The sound tails off or "dampens" at the end; to the ear this gives the call
a melancholy quality. By contrast the Eastern Crowned Warbler call is lower (under
5khz) and finishes rather abruptly, giving this call a "cheery" tone in the
field.
I think frequency changes according to various factors (distance, dampness
etc) in the field and so I cannot comment on the pitch of each frequency.
For instance, some Ijima`s Leaf Warbler calls I recorded exceeded a 6khz range. While
there may be some limiting factors to recording techniques, I still think
the calls of these two species can be seen to be distinctly different.

The wintering grounds of Ijima`s Leaf Warbler are still largely unknown, and very
little is known of this species` migration routes in Japan. There are
passage records from Shizuoka, Wakayama, Oita and Okinawa prefectures and
also from Yakushima in Kagoshima prefecture. From this evidence it is likely
that birds occur on passage from the Tokai region, Ki Peninsula, through
Shikoku and Eastern Kyushu. In autumn 2003, a good friend of mine, Fergus
Crystal, found Ijima`s Leaf Warbler on migartion in the Osumi Peninsula of
Kagoshima Prefecture where he was resident. I climbed Mt.Inaodake with him that
year and observed this species with him. I submit his report here.

On migration, Ijima`s Leaf Warbler is likely to be found singly or in small
groups in tit parties (particularly Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus) in
evergreen forest from sea-level up to 900m. Like Eastern Crowned Warbler, the birds
are often seen from below, and like that species they show whitish
underparts with a yellowish wash to the vent and undertail coverts. They are
active, hopping around the branches feeding and calling regularly. Many
approach closely, when the deciding factor of a complete lack of any trace
of a central crown stripe can be observed.

It`s really important to get more acquainted with the calls of theses two
species. Let`s find more Ijima`s Leaf Warbler on migration!

Comparison of Phylloscopus coronatus and Phylloscopus ijimae about calls.

Fig1 Eastern Crowned Warbler
Phylloscopus coronatus
Call of Spectrogram

[WAVE 117KB]

Fig2 Ijima's Leaf Warbler Individual 1
Phylloscopus ijimae
Call of Spectrogram

[WAVE 165KB]

Fig3 Eastern crowned Warbler
Phylloscopus coronatus
other part of same individual

[ WAVE 166KB ]

Fig4 Ijima's Leaf Warbler Individual 2
Phylloscopus ijimae

[ WAVE 42KB ]

Avisoft SAS Lab Light
These spectrograms investigated only number .Although these results are not scientific results,
I think that you can understand those differences.

Reference
Web Site
Phyllon's Personal Japanese Wild Bird Museum
About Eastern Crowned Warbler Phylloscopus coronatus

Spectrogram
Avisoft Bioacoustics
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The singing life of birds
Hamao.S : Individual identification of male Japanese Bush Warblers Cettia diphone by song
Japanese Journal of Ornithorogy 41;1-7,1993
Papers
Yamashina.Y : A Natural History of Japanese Birds 2, p84-86 1941 Iwanami shoten
Higuchi, H. : Birds of the Izu Islands (2). On the passege in the Izu Peninsula and the wintering in the Izu Islands, of Phylloscopus ijimae : p24-25 Tori 1973
Takagi.M,Higuchi.H : Habitat Selection by Ijima's Willow Warbler Phylloscopus ijimae on Miyake-jima,Japan
Japanese Journal of Ornithorogy 49;113-117,2000
Martins,R.P, : Littele-known Oriental Birds: Ijima's Warbler, Oriental Bird Club Bulletin6, 18:21
Brazil.M, Birds of Japan 230 1991 Christpher Helm
Thomas.R : Ijima's Leaf Warbler , Birding Asia 2 (2004):70-71
Kennedy,Gonzales,Dickinson,Miranda and Fisher : A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines 2000,
Oxford university press

Report
Crystal.F : Important News About Ijima's Warbler Phylloscopus ijimae in SE Kyushu

Acknowledgement
Generic Phylloscopus resarcher Mr. Yoshiki Watabe did many useful advice to me. I thank him heartily.
And Fergus Crystal gave me interest to this only difference and corrected an English sentence.
Many thanks.

Geographical Variation : It is said to be unclear subspecies a bush warbler of Nakanoshima.

A song of this bush warbler seems to be slightly different from a bush warbler of the Japan mainland.
Some colors of the body seem to be different from it. A color may be red more-like than a bush warbler of the mainland.

Song 1 [ Long MP3 509KB ]
Song 2 [ Long MP3 608KB ]
Song 3 [ Long MP3 637KB ] Location : Tairajima 20 May

Song ( Alarm ) 0 [ Long MP3 373KB ]
Song ( Alarm ) 1 [ Long MP3 343KB ]
Song ( Alarm ) 2 [ Long MP3 280KB ]
Song ( Alarm ) 3 [ Long MP3 531KB ] include Ryukyu Robin's call.
Song ( Alarm ) 4 [ Long MP3 734KB ]

[ Long MP3 188KB ]

Courtship 16 May Nakanoshima

1	2	3
4	5	6

Alarm and court song include wing noise [ Long MP3 529KB ] ( image 1)
A call of the female who appeared [ Long MP3 404KB ] (image 2)
The male who shakes a wing in spite of being a song in a low voice. ( image 1, 2 )
1 [ Long MP3 538KB ]
2 [ Long MP3 758KB ]

It is the male which continues singing as there was nothing after copulation . ( image 4, 5 )
And two females come over this time. ( image 6 )
[ Long MP3 937KB ]

All the Images of courtship and copulation

Courtship of this bush warbler may not change with a thing of the mainland.
How do you think?

Reference
Hamao.S : Lack of Pair-bond: a Polygynous Mating System of the Japanese Bush Warbler Cettia diphone
Japanese Journal of Ornithology 40: 51-65, 1992
Hamao.S : Birder Special Uguisu , Bunichisogosyuppan 1997 ISBN4-8299-3052-7

No image

[ Long MP3 921KB ] [ Short MP3 301KB ]
Location Nakanoshima , 13 May

Status Birdlife Asia

1 [ Long MP3 478KB ]
2 [ Long MP3 459KB ]

1 [ MP3 90KB ] Like a frog call.
2 [ MP3 390KB ] " Frog " type call
3 [ MP3 135KB ] High tone

Fig 5 Spectrogram of Ryukyu Robin's call. call [ WAVE 96KB ]
It is a high tone call.