v7i1.161

Submitted date: 13 March 2014
Accepted date: 19 July 2014
Published date: 19 January 2015
Pp. 56, Pl. 22.

A nocturnal call of the black ibis (Pseudibis papillosa)

D.S. Shekhawat* & C. Bhatnagar
*Corresponding author. E-mail: sdeependrasingh@yahoo.com

During the night of 12 May 2013, in Udaipur city (24°31’30″N, 73°40’38″E), we heard a harsh sound that could not be associated with any animal. The following morning we observed a pair of black ibis (Pseudibis papillosa) with one juvenile on top of an Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae) tree which was the tallest among all nearby trees. We heard the same type of call for the next 13 days. Black ibis made this call between 24:00 h and 01:30 h each night. During these 13 days, we recorded all calls (of two birds) with the help of a Canon SX40 video camera and later conducted sound analysis to understand the structure of this unusual call. The video file was converted into WAVE audio file using Total Video Converter 3.02 software and analyzed with the help of Raven Pro 1.4 software.

Section Editor: Varadharajan Gokula