I had an unusual experience with a Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus malayensis) today. I arrived at this wetland site around 6.57am and immediately encountered a Paddyfield Pipit calling out non-stop. The total duration, of continuously calling out, exceeded 1.5 minutes, as it had already been calling before I started any recordings. I am sure many of us are used to the hurried burst of 3-4 calls when taking flight or the less common 4-5 notes given when in a high display flight (courtship flight song). But this was something I have not encountered before. The bird was on a small mound of grass and singing, turning the head from side to side. There was no sequence or rhythm to the song. 64 calls were recorded in 75 seconds. The first half of the calls were different from the second half. The first half were the more classical 2-4 notes (occasionally single or 5) that sound like ‘tchep’ or ‘tseep’ or ‘chep’ (Wells 2007, HBW 2019). As the bird continued to all out the nature of the calls changed and became more complex – notes were harder to count, were more closely interspersed and the quality of the sound changed.
A video recording in low light is here: https://youtu.be/omvTzUK8Prc
An audio recording of the calls is here: https://www.xeno-canto.org/468470
Post 1 is a waveform and sonogram of the first type of calls.
There is some similarity on the sonogram of both types of calls but a good look at the waveforms shows there are different and the sonograms are not identical.
I am making an assumption that this is a Paddyfield Pipit. It was dark, ISO for images was 29,000, making clear DSLR photos not possible. But it is the predominant Pipit for the region and we are at the tail end of the migration season. Once light was up I looked at every Pipit in the area and all were Paddyfield Pipits.If anyone has comments about the ID I would appreciate this.
Post 2 is a waveform and sonogram of the second type of calls.
There is a similar encounter by Peter Boesman on 27th March 2016 at 5:45am at the Bundala Ramsar Wetland, Sri Lanka. He notes this as “singing from the ground at dawn”. His recording here: https://www.xeno-canto.org/311151.
The majority of the Paddyfield Pipits I encountered were nesting, some collecting nesting material. I wonder if these calls I witnessed are early morning territorial calls and, because they are made very early, often missed?
Amar-Singh HSS (Dato’ Dr)- Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Location: Malim Nawar Wetlands, Perak, Malaysia
Habitat: Extensive ex-tin mining area with pond/lakes, wetlands, fish farming
Date: 25th April 2019
Equipment: Nikon D500 SLR with Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD, handheld with Rode VideoMic Pro Plus Shotgun Microphone
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