Hi Tweeters,

Today at about 3:30pm I had an interesting bird encounter while in my yard. I was standing on the deck trying to find a few new additions for the yard list when three small finches flew over my house heading to the southwest. They were fairly high up in a cohesive flock with their flight being undulating and energetic. Their calls quickly got my attention as they sounded quite un-Siskinlike (at least to my ears), with each call consisting of about 3 harsh notes in a rapid series, "Chick-chick-chick..... chick-chick-chick". This call was given constantly, about every 1.5 seconds or so.
So I'm wondering, do other small finches make any similar flight calls to those of Redpolls? Since my experience with Redpoll vocalizations is somewhat limited, all I have to go on is what I remember from the few times I've seen Common Redpolls and various sources of bird audio recordings. Earlier in the day both American Goldfinches (a flock of a few loosely associated individuals) and Pine Siskins (a nice flock of about 50) were in the area.

Thanks in advance for your input

Tayler Brooks
Brier, WA
greenjaytay at comcast.net