Andrew Skeoch

And so they're learning from each other.

Their local song is constantly being reinforced and relearned.

And they all sing exactly the same song.

They practice it word perfect, note perfect.

When you were with me, I got my eyes on a male bird singing at the top of the bush and realized, firstly, it is actually the male doing that soft bubble song.

But it really confirmed for me that he is singing to the female.

She's the only one within earshot that could hear that really soft, intimate call.

And at the end of the dawn chorus, she emerged from the bush and that they'd both been roosting in overnight and she flew off.

And immediately, well, he got very animated with this little bubble

when she emerged and then stopped as soon as she flew off.

So in my understanding of what was going on with that vocalization, it's the male affirming his bond with the female that he's been roosting with overnight, as well as doing the regular dawn chorus thing, which is, you know, calling out to his neighbors and listening back for their responses and so on.

That bubble song that I'm hearing in the white ears, spiny cheeks do it as well.

If you listen carefully, you hear them doing this really soft, not all the time, but just every now and again.

You hear this little dook, dook, dook, dook, dook, dook, in between their main song phrases.

BIRDS CHIRP

Once again, you only hear this at dawn.

You don't hear this throughout the rest of the day.

But there are other honey eaters that do it as well.

I've recorded white plumed honey eaters doing it.

And a colleague has said yellow plumed honey eaters also do it.