Hi All: I recently put up a thistle feeder to attract the goldfinches that seem to be abundant this year. The purple finches also love it. One purple finch female on the feeder was serenaded by a male "chippering" (term from BNA online). He twittered with short purple finch notes while rapidly fluttering wings, cocked tail, and jumped and flitted about around the female. He also incorporated red crossbill (chip-chip-chip), goldfinch (po-ta-to chip), robin (alarm notes) and Steller's jay (call notes) into the vocal display. All these were smoothly interspersed with the twittered purple finch notes. This is previously reported for purple finches, but I've never heard or seen such an active or varied display. Just an interesting bird observation and thought I was seeing and hearing something new until checking the BNA account.Gary Shugart
Slater Museum (Tacoma) & Vashon Island