Bird Quiz Results

OK, results time.

1. Sip = Song Thrush
2. Siiiiiiiiii = Redwing
3. Je-je = Redpoll
4. Chuck chuck = Fieldfare
5. Chup = Linnet
6. Seeeeep = Siskin
7. Chack chack chack = Ring Ouzel
8. Zherck = Brambling
9. Jupp = Chaffinch
10. Squeak squeak squeak = Meadow Pipit

So first of all, many thanks to those of you who took part. In case you were wondering, that was 6 out of the 200 who read the post. Who says blogging is dead? Not I……. I’ll be honest, I was hoping for more engagement, but it doesn’t matter - it was all just a bit of fun and I guess this is just where blogging is at. I wanted to know how people variously thought about bird calls, and if somehow people heard things differently to me. And? Well they do and they don’t. It’s a small sample but overall those who took part between them guessed 70% of the my bird call representations correctly. The most confusing one appears to be Chuck chuck vs Chack chack – I clearly hear Fieldfare slightly differently, I think it has a slight husky/clucky quality vs a Ring Ouzel which I would describe as a harsher and crisper call, hence why Fieldfare I write with a “u” and Ring Ouzel with an “a” to emphasise that distinction. Similarly Chup and Jupp, how I wrote Linnet and Chaffinch, proved difficult to distinguish, which I suppose is fair enough really. I wonder if I should have added a “t” to make Linnet “Tchup”? Sip on the other hand, as well as Zherck, were ones that seemed more definitively obvious as being Song Thrush and Brambling respectively. I was surprised that only one person agreed with Redwing –if asked to describe that I would say it is a very thin seep with a slight sifflly edge, something that might if allowed to continue and grow become a high-pitched rapid trill but ends up being more of a mildly drawn out whistle – in other words, or rather in one word, a “Siiiiiiiiiii”.

So there you have it. If you have better suggestions, or different suggestions for how you would describe any of the birds above then do let me know in the comments. I’m a glass half-full kind of person.

Who can suggest a sound for this?