Acoustic analysis and playback experiments do not support the taxonomic revision of the Central and Western Canary Islands subspecies of the Eurasian Stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus distinctus)

Capsule: Acoustic analysis does not support the elevation of B. o. distinctus to full species. Aims:To verify whether the vocal repertoires of B. o. oedicnemus and B. o. distinctus show biologically significant quantitative and qualitative differences. Methods: Integration of acoustic analysis of some of the most frequently uttered call types recorded in Italy and in Canary Islands with playback experiments. Results: The vocal repertoires of the individuals belonging to the two subspecies were rather similar, but the quantitative analysis of acoustic parameters evidenced some differences between the considered populations. In particular, the three most used call types showed higher frequency and faster utterance rhythm for B. o. distinctus than for B. o. oedicnemus. Playback experiments indicated that individuals from the nominate subspecies responded in the same way to the playback of calls of individuals belonging to both subspecies. Conclusion: Acoustic analysis supports the distinctiveness of Stone-curlew populations from Central and Western Canary Islands, thus confirming the available morphological and genetic data. These results, however, do not suggest the elevation of B. o. distinctus to full species.