“I spent part of the morning listening to Tickell’s Blue Flycatchers (Cyornis tickelliae sumatrensis) sing and call out. There were at least 3 birds (perhaps 3) with 2 separate adult males and one female. I made a number of recordings.
1. The classical song comprises a ‘sweet song of 4-7 tinkling, metallic notes‘ (Wells 2007). It is highly variable and I think used as territorial marker. Above shows the sonogram and waveform of such calls. The call recording can be found HERE. Note that there are 2 birds calling (2 sets of calls). The lower volumes ones were of a bird further away and the higher volume were the answering calls of the bird nearer to me. Here the notes appeared fixed (there were 8 calls and 8 responses in 50 seconds) but I have recorded other sonograms with varying song structure.
2. The other types of call are a churring ‘trrt-trrt’ and an individual ‘tak’(Wells 2007) . These can be seen in the sonogram and waveform above. The call recording can be found (interspersed with other call types): HERE.
3. A fourth type of call, made infrequently, is a sharp whistle like call. The sonogram and waveform of such calls is shown above. The call recording can be found (interspersed with other call types): HERE.
“The image at the top shows one of the males.”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
20th December 2019
Location: Kledang-Sayong Forest Reserve, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Habitat: Broken trail in primary jungle
