Frequency signatures: Cockatiel to Common Chiffchaff
Each card gives a species’ behavioural archetype, its frequency — how often it commits effort and how long each commitment lasts — and a waveform tracing that rhythm.
Frequency signatures
Each waveform traces one species’ working rhythm — where it spends effort, and where it waits. 2,327 species, A–Z; showing 457–480.
Cockatiel
A Crest That Reports Arousal
Raising and lowering a mobile crest • Signalling alarm, interest or calm continuously • Reading the same signal in others
Since crest movements occur through the day, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Cockroach
Cerci Reading the Air
A pair of cerci at the rear covered in fine hairs, each hair deflected by the slightest air movement • The air pushed ahead of an approaching object detected before the object itself arrives • Giant interneurons carrying that signal to the legs so the insect is running within a few thousandths of a second
Because the response is measured in milliseconds, it operates as a high-frequency system.
Cocoa Tussock Moth
Wings Given Up for Eggs
A winged male flying at night, tracking female pheromone across distance and mating with whatever he finds
The two sexes run different architectures, so it operates as a bimodal system.
Coconut Crab
Long-Moult Claw Investment
Decadal • Armoured • Nocturnal
Because value comes from long structural accumulation spent patiently rather than from speed, it is a low-frequency system.
Coconut Octopus
Stilt-Walking With Stacked Shells
Gathering • Hauling • Deploying
Continuous transport and deployment of its own cover makes this a mid-frequency system.
Coelacanth
Cave Day and Drift-Hunt Night
Caved • Crowded • Daylight
Because both the cave day and the drifting night are essential, it is a bimodal system.
Coho Salmon
A Creek Year, Then a Rain-Timed Run
Sheltering • Drift-feeding • Stream-bound
Because the system switches from a sheltered stream year to a rain-timed run, it is a phase-change system.
Collared Falconet
A Falcon Living in a Woodpecker's Hole
Perched in the open • Dashing after insects • Nesting in a borrowed cavity
Continuous daylight perch-hunting makes this a mid-frequency system.
Collared Peccary
A Herd With One Smell
A gland on the lower back releasing a strong musky secretion • Animals rubbing head and flank against each other's glands repeatedly through the day • The whole herd converging on one blended odour that marks membership
Because the reinforcement is continuous, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Collared Pratincole
A Wader That Hunts Like a Swallow
Hawking • Flocking • Crepuscular
That makes it a bimodal system: aerial insect hawking and a colonial ground-nesting phase.
Collector Urchin
Debris Held as Roof
Tube feet extended above the body and used to grip fragments of algae, seagrass, shell and coral rubble • That material held over the upper surface as a continuous cover, replaced as pieces are lost • Ultraviolet light blocked and the outline broken, so the urchin is shaded and also does not read as an urchin
Because the adjustment is continuous but slow, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Comet Moth
Echo-Deflecting Tail Streamers
Unfed • Brief • Signal-only
Because a fixed reserve is spent evenly across a few days, it is a low-frequency system.
Commerson's Dolphin
Small Fast Body in Cold Shallow Water
Foraging • Coastal • Benthic
The system is bimodal: MID coastal foraging and HIGH bursts of speed.
Commerson's Frogfish
A Rod Grown From Skin
A modified first dorsal spine forming a rod with a fleshy lure at the tip • That lure worked in front of the mouth so it moves like a small worm or shrimp • The mouth expanding explosively when a fish comes to investigate, drawing it in faster than any strike can be seen
Because strikes are rare, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Common Backswimmer
Inverted Surface Rower
Ceiling • Gliding • Poised
That combination of extended poised suspension and brief, high-output oar strokes makes the backswimmer a bimodal system with a low-frequency baseline and a high-frequency strike-and-escape mode.
Common Basilisk
Outrunning the Cavity Before It Closes
Basking • Riverside • Watching
That makes it a bimodal system: relaxed riverside perching and a brief burst that cannot be sustained.
Common Bed Bug
Hidden Hematophagy Cycle
Concealed • Compressed • Waiting
This makes the bed bug a bimodal wait-then-strike system whose core is Patient Shelter around a necessary but risky resource.
Common Blackbird
Litter-Turning Ground Search
Flicking leaves aside • Running and stopping • Listening down
Since the searching and listening run together through every daylight hour, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Common Bluetail
Linear Reed Circuit
Rhythmic • Patrol • Circuit
This creates a mid-frequency operating pattern: rhythmic patrols, regular short bursts of movement and capture, and continuous but moderate expenditure anchored to the same reed structures.
Common Bream
A Mouth That Extends Downward
Tilting head down over soft mud • Shooting the jaws forward and downward into a tube • Sucking sediment in, sorting the invertebrates and blowing the rest back out
Since feeding actions repeat constantly, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Common Brittle Star
Modular Regrowing Arms
Hidden • Anchored • Extending
This creates a bimodal rhythm: long stretches of low-frequency, anchored reaching and feeding punctuated by coordinated mid-frequency episodes of crawling escape and the slower cycle of arm loss and regeneration that keeps the system working after damage.
Common Buzzard
Staying Up Without Flapping
Circling in rising air with broad wings and splayed primary feathers • Gaining height at almost no metabolic cost • Covering ground and scanning it from a height nothing else can hold for hours
Since soaring is continuous, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Common Carpet Moth
Bands Running Across the Wings
Settling flat against a surface with wings spread rather than folded • Carrying dark bands that run continuously across fore and hind wing • Having the outline of a moth replaced by a pattern of stripes on a flat plane
Since resting bouts alternate with flight through the day, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Common Chiffchaff
Two Species Told by Song
Singing a simple two-note phrase repeated from high in a tree • Recognising and responding only to that pattern • Ignoring the near-identical bird singing something else
Since song bouts recur constantly, it operates as a mid-frequency system.