What would you say is the max frequency of this spectrogram...

[Steelflight]

Check out the attached spectrogram-- how would I determine the max frequency? Just use the trace function and go to the darkest part of each column?

[ermine]

you would have done well to leave us with the frequency axis on the left hand side :) If the vertical scale is linear 0Hz to 22kHz you have an awesome amount of energy at about 500Hz. Visible harmonics extend to about 15k but most of your energy is below 10k. The visibility of these are critically variable on how you set the contrast & brightness controls. Why are you particularly interested in the HF extent - most of the energy is in the fundamental?

[Steelflight]

Sorry about that... here is another version WITH the axes!

Also, why is it that on the left side side of the spectrogram it is on a scale of 0 to 5000 Hz, but on the right side it is from 75 to 500 Hz (this is in Praat, by the way)? What is the difference between the two scales? If I look up a bird's calling frequency, like a gray owl, it says the frequency is under 1000 Hz... yet if I rely on the left scale, it says its several KHz! The right side seems to give the "right" reading of 400 Hz...

Thanks again, ermine.

[ermine]

To my eyes the highest signal frequency displayed is 6kHz. However
If I look up a bird's calling frequency, like a gray owl, it says the frequency is under 1000 Hz...
would indicate to me I should be looking for the lowest note, which usually contains most of the energy. That is easiest done by selecting the call, here from about 0.9 to 1.1 seconds, and running a normal spectrum analysis, which will show you peaks. It's terribly hard to see that clearly from a spectrogram with its linear frequency scale but much easier to see on a log frequency scale. I would estimate that to be in the region of 500Hz here, +/- 200 Hz