Finch calls

The flight calls of at least some finches appear to be learned. Birds of a mated pair or those in a social group have matching calls, and the calls can change throughout life as required.

American Goldfinch, birds in flight, the typical flight call (July, ME).












Several birds in flight (Jan, PA)



Interaction calls at a feeder are similar to flight calls (Jan, PA)











Quiet calls at a feeder also appear to be the same as the flight call (Jan, PA)












"Bay-bee", the alarm call (Aug, PA).













Another call, this was by repeated for several minutes by a female (Aug, NJ).














Waaee (compare with the similar call of the Pine Siskin below).
Female calling, male singing (Apr, NJ).











A different pair of birds.












More examples of this call:
(June, NJ)












(May, NJ)











Perched male, preceded by other calls (July, PA).

calls at 1s






calls at 6s








waaee










Same bird, flight call while perched.











Ti-hoo, the call of recently fledged birds(Sep, NJ).












Pine Siskin, typical klyer flight calls from perched birds (Tufted Titmouse calling, Dec, PA).












This is the characteristic zzzreeee call that is commonly heard from perched birds, and occasionally in flight too (Mar, PA).












Another common call is waaee. American Goldfinch and Common Redpoll have very similar calls to this one (Apr, PA).












Five siskins chattering to each other while feeding at the top of a tree just before flying off (Feb, PA).













Flock calls, a number of siskins calling from a tree-top (Mar, PA).












Common Redpoll, tchet and higher tchit calls in flight (June, AK).


















Redpoll in flight, probably Common but not identified for certain, example of their fast trills (June, AK).

tchit and trill










The typical flight call of White-winged Crossbills is a low je-je-je-je (June,AK).











Another call is a vheet-vheet, usually heard with the je-je-je call. These birds were in the top of a spruce in SE PA in December 2008. That winter White-winged Crossbills irrupted and were found all over the Delaware Valley region.











A flock of 30 birds feeding on hemlock cones (Mar, PA).





Purple Finch flight calls (perched bird,July, ME). A very distinctive call.












These calls were made by a female Purple Finch that was with fledglings. The fledgling calls are a yo-whee (4 out of the first 5 calls on the recording), but the other calls are by the adult bird. There is also a Song Sparrow and Yellow Warbler singing (July, ME).


There are four different calls made by the female, as shown in the following sonagrams (21-26s on the recording).


























to the left is the high-pitched call with the fledgling call under it









The common flight call of the House Finch is a vweet (Mar, PA).











This call can be surprisingly similar some of those of the House Sparrow (May, PA).
House Sparrow










Several typical calls of birds in my backyard (Mar, PA).

raspy vheer









call at 1, 13 and 15s





call at 3 and 6s










call at 10s