Dooling, R.J., Bunnell, H.T. and Clark, C. (1984). Critical band analysis of avian vocalizations. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 75, S27.

In searching for the basis of information encoding in avian vocalizations, conventional analysis techniques fail to take into account what is known about peripheral auditory processing in the avian ear. A spectral analysis of the entire vocal repertoire of the budgerigar is described based on the threshold of hearing and acoustic transformations derived from psychoacoustic studies of masking in this species. Some vocalizations of the budgerigar are matched to the region of best absolute sensitivity and smallest critical bandwidth in this species while others are not. The unusual shape of the critical band function for the budgerigar provides a considerably different view of the spectral differences normally observed between categories of vocalizations and between the vocalizations of other species. These results will be discussed in relation to the probable function of budgerigar vocalizations and the acoustic cues facilitating individual recognition. [Work supported by NICHHD and NINCDS.]