Sonation

The term sonate is described as the deliberate production of sounds, not from the throat, but rather from structures such as the bill, wings, tail, feet and body feathers, or by the use of tools.

[1] Examples are the tonal sound produced by the tail-feathers of the Anna's hummingbird Calypte anna,[2] the drumming of the tail-feathers of the African snipe and common snipe, bill-clattering by storks or the deliberate territorial tapping practised by woodpeckers and certain members of the parrot family, such as palm cockatoos which drum on hollow trees using broken-off sticks.

[4] Video footage of male club-winged manakins, Machaeropterus deliciosus, shows them producing sustained harmonics derived from vibrating secondary wing feathers.

[5] Adult male red-billed streamertail hummingbirds (Trochilus polytmus) have long tail streamers, but these do not produce their distinctive whirring flight sound.

Evidence points to the wings instead – the whirring is synchronised with the wingbeats and video footage shows primary feather eight (P8) bending with each downstroke, creating a gap that produces the fluttering sound.