Measuring In-Air and Underwater Hearing in Seabirds

Electrophysiological methods were used to measure the in-air hearing of 10 species of seabirds. There are currently no measures of the underwater hearing abilities of diving birds. In preparation for constructing a behavioral audiogram both in-air and underwater hearing, several species of diving ducks were raised. Because there is a considerable amount of literature on bird hearing in air, the technical setup and training methods were modeled on similar studies, with modifications to address the nature of the underwater sound field and the difficulty of the task for the birds.