“The Mountain Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus trivirgatus parvirostris) is difficult to watch and image. It is found usually high in the canopy or in dense shade.
“On this day it was in full song and I manged to get some recordings. The song appears to be a ‘jumble’ of notes, going up and down, often rendered from high in the canopy in ‘full throttle’. For a small bird, the high frequency song is loud and carries far. The duration of song is often 4 seconds but can be only 1-2 seconds at times. It is repeated quickly with only a 1-2 second pause in between songs. I did not hear any answering calls but, at the start of the start of the recordings, a White-tailed Robin (Myiomela leucura leucura) can be heard three times.
“The sonogram and waveform of one song are in seen below. You can see the highly complex nature of the song and a lot of information is being conveyed at different frequencies. There is a stronger baseline component at 3-7kHz but the notes go up to 19kHz in a feathery pattern. There is no ‘jumble’ here at all; the bird is a one person symphony.
“And edited audio recording can be found HERE.
“Also 2 Mountain Leaf-warblers were part of a mixed foraging parties (bird waves) with 2 Chestnut-Tailed Minlas, 5-6 Blue-winged Minlas (Minla cyanouroptera sordidior), 7-8 Silver-eared Mesias (Leiothrix argentauris tahanensis), 4 Yellow-breasted Warblers (Seicercus montis davisoni), 4 Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrikes (Hemipus picatus intermedius), 1 White-throated Fantail (Rhipidura albicollis atrata), 1 Golden Babbler (Stachyridopsis chrysaea chrysops), 1 Grey-throated Babbler (Stachyris nigriceps davisoni), 2 Grey-chinned Minivet (Pericrocotus solaris montanus) and others (unidentified).
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
14th March 2019
Location: ~1,800m ASL, Gunung Brinchang, Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia
Habitat: Road running through mixed secondary & primary montane forest