Endemic to the mountains of south-west mainland China, the Sichuan hill partridge (
Arborophila rufipectus
) is a Galliform bird with high conservation concern. Up until now, little is known about the vocal behaviour of the Sichuan hill partridge. We studied the vocal behaviour of the Sichuan hill partridge in Pingshan, Sichuan Laojunshan Nature Reserve with spectrographic analysis from April to December 2005. Based on observation in the wild and playback experiments, the behaviours and characteristics of vocalization of the Sichuan hill partridge were analysed.The results showed that males had three types of one-syllable call, which were crowing call, courtship call and preserving territory call. The syllable duration was significantly different between calls, but the difference of main peak frequency was not significantly different. The males also had five types of two-syllable call, which were crowing call, courtship call, competing call and two types of preserving territory call. The duration of the first syllable, duration of the second syllable, the interval time between the first and the second syllables and the main peak frequency was positively significant between the five types, but the duration of the whole sentence was not significantly different. In addition, they had three types of several-syllable call, which were alarm call, screaming call and preserving territory call. Sub-adult males had two types of several-syllable calls, which included alarm call and escape call. The syllable duration, interval time and main peak frequency of alarm calls was not significantly different between sub-adult males and adult males, but the duration of the whole sentence was significantly different. The syllable duration, interval time, main peak frequency of screaming call and the duration of the whole sentence was not significantly different between sub-adult males and adult males. The findings suggest that vocal behaviour of hill partridge will benefit to preserve mates and avoid the predator pressure so that the population may exist forever.
