‘Pink!’ The nine vocalisation vocabulary of the Chaffinch

There’s a Chaffinch shouting ‘Pink!’ at me. That’s where finches got their name; from their call of ‘Fink’ or ‘Pink’.

They have nine different vocalisations in their vocabulary:

• A flight call
• A social or aggressive call
• An injury call
• Three courtship calls
• Three alarm calls

You can listen to them all here in a British Library article.

I’ve increased my powers of observation over the past two years by photographing birds.

Now I need to really concentrate and listen so that I can identify more species from the sounds they make.

After hearing all the sounds they make, I’ll never listen to a Chaffinch in the same way again.

Will you?