Bird Listening...

American Goldfinch (spinus tristis) Shares The Seed Feeder

With His Buddy Purple Finch (carpodacus purpureus)

We live in a very noisy neighborhood. Now I'm not talking about our neighbors in the houses nearby, I'm talking about the birds...

Today, as I sat on the steps by the front door, eyes closed, soaking up some wonderful sunshine and getting my daily dose of vitamin D, and thinking,, well not so much "thinking" actually, more like feeling the goodness of the sun on my face, I realized there was a verbal slinging match going on in the trees next door...I turned in the direction of the squabbling and saw several American Goldfinch males with their brilliant coats of canary yellow (some folks do call them "Wild Canaries.") Doing what seemed to be, some serious verbal gunslinging... They were all in their respective territories (each seem to have their own tree they were claiming as theirs,) and they would flit from branch to branch (staying within the boundaries of their own trees,) and would essentially hurl insults at each other... I sat and listened and watched them... To my ears it was music, but I dare say to each of the males involved it was all out war (from... the safety of their own trees of course!)

I read that during nesting time when the rather drab (in comparison to her rather flamboyant mate) female Goldfinch sits on her 6-8 peanut sized blue eggs.. The males get very noisy and territorial.. I think that's what I was observing today...

I wonder what they were saying in bird talk to each other???

I would love to know, but I can only imagine...