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. 2023 Mar 31;13(4):e9938.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.9938. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Monitoring the courtship flight trajectory of Latham's snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) using microphone arrays

Shiho Matsubayashi  1 , Hideki Osaka  2 , Reiji Suzuki  3 , Kazuhiro Nakadai  4 , Hiroshi G Okuno  5
Affiliations

Monitoring the courtship flight trajectory of Latham's snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) using microphone arrays

Shiho Matsubayashi et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

This study is the first to quantitatively measure the courtship display flights of Latham's snipe (Gallinago hardwickii), which is a "near threatened" species as of 2022 (IUCN red list of threatened species). By using a 16-channel microphone array and 8-channel microphone arrays, we localized the fine-scale movements of courtship flights of one male performing at high altitude and high speed, and we estimated the direction from which each sound arrived using robot audition. Preliminary analyses of the azimuthal and elevation angles of the courtship flights partially revealed a fine-scale flight trajectory. First, a male Latham's snipe gradually gained altitude while vocalizing sharp and harsh repeating calls, until it reached the flight peak altitude, then dove down while producing winnowing sound to the ground along the wetland zones without tall vegetation. This observation method is methodologically useful to establish a better understanding of Latham's snipe courtship flight site selection. Furthermore, this method can be extended to investigate other rare nocturnal or crepuscular birds that are too timid to risk ringing or tagging.

Keywords: Gallinago hardwickii; courtship flight; flight trajectory visualization; localization; microphone arrays; robot audition.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Spectrogram of vocal and non‐vocal parts of display flight of male Latham's snipe.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Habitat types of study area.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Photographs of study area at dawn (left) and dusk (right).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Geometry of 16‐channel microphone array from side view (left) and top view of the microphone on a tripod in the field (right). Black dots on the body of the microphone array indicate placement of microphone node.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Flowchart showing process of adjusting the parameters in HARKBird.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Locations of confirmed display sites A, B, and C and microphone arrays.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Number of display flights of male during the midnight peak at site A. Three lines indicate number of flights localized by three 8‐channel microphone arrays at site A.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Spectrograms (top) and localized elevation angles (bottom) of display flights of male derived from 16‐channel microphone array in 45 min during midnight peak at site A.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Sample flight trajectory of male in 2D based on azimuth DOAs derived from two 8‐channel microphone arrays at site A.
FIGURE 10
FIGURE 10
Spectrogram of display flight (top), azimuthal angle (middle), and elevation angle (bottom) of display flight as a function of time. Sudden drops in flight elevation are indicated by pink circles.
FIGURE 11
FIGURE 11
Localized elevation angles (left), and flight trajectory of display flight (right). Flight trajectory was constructed based on elevation angle (black on the vertical axis) and azimuthal angle (blue on the outer edge of the circle) derived from the microphone array. Elevations peaks and bottoms of display flight are shown in blue and pink dashed circles, respectively. DOA, direction of arrival.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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