Do both male and female hwamei (Chinese laughingthrush) sing with throat calls, and how do their calls differ?

Excuse me, do both male and female hwamei sing with throat calls? What is the difference between their calls? The female hwamei keeps making the female call, as excited as the male hwamei; if they meet, she will only quiver her wings and make cheeping sounds, but will not snap her beak; if she is in season, she will even lunge at the cage and actively attack the male hwamei.

[Expert answer] During the breeding season, the male bird often hides alone among weeds and branches, and is extremely good at warbling; its voice is very loud, and its song is melodious and sweet, very pleasant to hear. It is a famous cage bird. The ending note slightly resembles “mo-gi-yiu-”, so the ancients called its call “ruyi ruyi”.

The different meanings of the female hwamei's calls

① If the hwamei makes a “wa... wa” call, it is warning others of the same kind that there is danger. It means everyone should hide.

② Making “gu. gu. gu..” while the tail swings up and down means “I want a girl”.

③ Making “gu. gu. gu..” while circling in place or shaking its head on the perch means “this place is mine. Be careful or I will bite you.”­

④ Making “wu. wu. wu...” and opening both wings means “I want to fight”.

⑤ If you walk close to the hwamei and it makes “wu. wu. wu...” and opens both wings and calls, then it is saying “I love you. So happy to see you.” It will also do this action when it sees a female bird.

⑥ If you say “ao. ao. ao. ao” to a hwamei that is in season, it will shake its head and start calling. Unfortunately, I do not know what “ao. ao. ao. ao” actually means to a hwamei. It may mean a threat.,

⑦ Making a sound like “ke, ke, ke, ke, ke, ke” indicates fear and showing weakness.

⑧ Making the sound “ga——ji”: if the bird's feathers are not raised, it means it wants to call but dares not call out; if the bird's feathers are raised, it means the bird is already frightened to the extreme.

The relationship between the female hwamei and the male hwamei's fighting spirit

The hwamei is a bird that is naturally combative, and in the mountains they also fight all year round, but what are the reasons for fighting? It is during the annual estrus period (spring) and when the fledglings leave the nest (winter). During the estrus period, male birds tear into each other to seek mating with the female bird; the winner gets to mate with the female bird. When the fledglings leave the nest, it is the time for the fledglings to pair up and fight over territory. Birds from the same brood include both male and female, and they will also pair up to fight over territory. With the company of a female bird, it is of course aggressive, and they go out as a pair to fight over territory.

So when keeping fighting birds, keeping a female bird as a companion is to make the male bird's fighting spirit stronger. Of course, without the company of a female bird, the male bird will still fight, but its fighting temperament will not be as strong. When we keep birds and fight birds, we do not use a female bird as company every day, and at ordinary times at home we do not always let the male bird hear the female bird's calls; we only let it, during fights, display its instinct just as it would in the wild.

How the female hwamei calls

During the breeding season, the male hwamei is extremely good at warbling, and its voice is very loud; the ending note slightly resembles “mo-gi-yiu-”, so the ancients called its call “ruyi ruyi”. The hwamei is best at imitating the songs of its own kind and other birds. To let it learn more bird songs, you can take it to a bird market or a place with many birds, and let it experience and learn the songs of good singers. After a long time, it will naturally learn from these good-singing birds, sing loudly, and become even more endlessly varied and pleasant to the ear.

But in fact, the female hwamei does not like to sing, and it has only one monotonous call, so those kept as song-type birds are all male birds.

The role of the female hwamei's calls

Hwamei are generally kept for bird fighting and for appreciating their calls. In southern China, especially in Guangdong, people are used to using a female bird to accompany a male bird. A good female hwamei has 4 major characteristics: urging, pi, di, and fighting.

Urging -- that is, urging the male bird to go and fight.

Pi -- is the female bird's call. As soon as the female bird calls, the male bird beside it becomes especially excited, playing a role in drawing out its spirit.

Di -- seems to be a kind of courtship signal. When the male bird sees it, it becomes bolder. When a new bird comes down from the mountain and meets a good female bird beside it, it quickly settles into the cage.

Fighting -- as the name suggests, it means daring to fight and having a strong fighting spirit. When the male bird sees the female bird, it will very much want to fight.