Animal Ears 🐦 How animals hear
Hummingbird hearing range in hertz
Lampornis clemenciae
It sings notes higher than it can actually hear.
In short
A Hummingbird hears from about 300 Hz up to 7 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 2 kHz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
The blue-throated hummingbird has fairly narrow hearing: 300 to 7,000 Hz, with its best zone at 2,000. The curious part is what it does with that limit: it produces notes above 7,000 Hz, that is, higher than it can apparently hear. Perhaps they serve some other purpose, perhaps it senses them in a way we don't yet understand. It's one of those cases that reminds you every species hears its own version of the world.
Hertz (Hz)
Which pitches it hears
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
A low sound rumbles (think thunder); a high sound squeals (think a mosquito). These three numbers mark how far down this animal goes, how far up it goes, and which pitch it hears most clearly of all.
| Lowest it hears | 300 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 7 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 2 kHz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Hummingbird's
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 7 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 500 Hz | 48 dB |
| 1 kHz | 26 dB |
| 1.5 kHz | 18 dB |
| 2 kHz | 15 dB |
| 3 kHz | 20 dB |
| 4 kHz | 33 dB |
| 5 kHz | 46 dB |
| 6 kHz | 57 dB |
| 7 kHz | 70 dB |
From the one published hummingbird ABR audiogram: best ~1–3 kHz, effectively no hearing above ~7 kHz. ABR thresholds are elevated vs behavioural — use the curve shape. (Duque et al. 2020 is cited for comparison only; it concerns a different species, the Ecuadorian hillstar.)
Can a Hummingbird hear things you can't?
A Hummingbird picks up everything from 300 Hz (the deepest) to 7 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 2 kHz.
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 7 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Hummingbird hear?
A Hummingbird picks up everything from 300 Hz (the deepest) to 7 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 2 kHz.
Can a Hummingbird hear things you can't?
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 7 kHz there is nothing left for it.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Hummingbird would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Hummingbird starts to hear each sound. We take that curve and apply it to your recording like a giant equaliser: we turn up the pitches the animal hears beautifully and turn down or remove the ones that simply don't exist for it. The result gets close to what it would notice... but it still arrives through your ears.
Hertz (Hz)
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Where these numbers come from
- Pytte, C.L., Ficken, M.S. & Moiseff, A. (2004). Ultrasonic singing by the blue-throated hummingbird. J. Comp. Physiol. A, 190(8), 665–673. doi:10.1007/s00359-004-0525-4
- Duque, F.G. et al. (2020). High-frequency hearing in a hummingbird. Science Advances, 6(29), eabb9393. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abb9393
More animals
Chicken
It misses your highs, but it drops to rumbles you never even brush.
Duck
Sensible bird hearing: no extremes, all of it in quacking territory.
Eagle
Champion eyesight, ordinary ears: it catches fewer highs than you do.
Penguin
It finds its partner by voice among thousands of penguins all shouting at once.
Animal Ears
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