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Article by: HHA

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When are in the field, ready to hunt goose or ducks, you should apply every advantage you can have,and knowing the right bird calls are is a big one in you favor. The call from these birds is a combination of body posture, sound and the action the bird is doing. You as a hunter can't reproduce the posture or the action, so you only have the sound to work with. The 2 most important factors of a goose or duck call are intensity and frequency. This will determine the differences between species and subspecies, as well as the pitch and duration of the sounds made.

Frequency

The speed or tempo of the call is relative to the action of the bird. If a duck is moving fast the call will also be. On land or when they are swimming, this is relative to their motion, but in mid air while flying it is relative to the downbeat of the wind stroke; this is when the bird exhales and contracts his muscles. On land, a slow call from a goose is to keep his family close; for a duck flying in formation the call will be slow, too, like a honk. If the goose is flapping its wings to take off, the call will be fast.

Intensity

The loudness of a call is determined by the mood of the bird. Anxious, irritated, nervous or excited birds will produce loud calls. The calls will be really loud if a bird that is taking off, landing, threatening, attacking or matting another bird. A call to keep the family closer while feeding or in land will be a softer one, but a call to stay together in formation, reunited after long periods of time or from a stranded bird will be loud instead. Pitch and length of a call is more related to the size of the duck. If a bird is large the chest cavity is also larger than in smaller species, and the pitch is deeper. Since the larger the bird the longer wings are, these will beat slower and the duration of a call and the timing between calls will be extended.