The aim of the study was to show how vocal repertoires were established. Six species of ducks and geese were investigated from the onset of vocalizations prior to hatching until the 10th day of life. The juvenile repertoires possess at least three distinct vocalization types; distress calls, contact calls and pleasure calls. It could be shown that all types of vocalizations are present prior to hatching. Contact calls could be elicited from embryos by playing back maternal calls or contact calls of siblings to them. We could elicit typical distress vocalizations from embryos in reaction to thermal stimuli. Pleasure notes were recorded only spontaneously. Embryonic vocalizations have in general a lower repetition rate, shorter duration and longer pauses between notes than juvenile ones.