Wednesday, 4 March 2015

The Greenfinch song

Few sounds are more evocative to me than the song of the Greenfinch. It brings back memories of trying to work out bird songs from scratch when, as a young teenager I started to watch birds in my local park. The Greenfinch's loud, distinctive cicada-like song carries longer than the beautiful, canary-like warbling notes that alternate with it. It took me attempts to finally find the source of the song, high on the canopy of a pine trees they used as song post. Later I also watched their display flight, with slow-motion butterfly-like wingbeats high over the trees, as they sing.
 Greenfinches have started to sing in the last couple of weeks and as I realised there is no Greenfinch post in the blog, today is the first step to amend that. I took the top shot today on my way to work, as I heard the finch calling. Listen to its song in this Xenocanto recording.
Aerial song
From a Hawthorn
A pair in an Ash tree with male singing.


5 comments:

  1. Lovely pictures. Our London Greenfinches have a much wheezier call than your example -- that's another Xeno-canto recording from outer London. Like you, I had a difficult time working out what was making this odd sound.

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  2. Thank you for commenting Ralph. Much appreciated. Maybe the London Greenfinches have adapted to increased noise levels. The recording I chose is in a very quiet wild place, judging by how clear it is.

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  3. I don't think I have ever been able to distinguish this song before, thank you for educating me further, Africa!

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  4. Most happy to help Toffeeapple! :-)

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