Bullfinch

Pyrrhula pyrrhula

The quiet whistle of the bullfinch is a subtle sound, but distinctive once you’re onto it. Bullfinches use this plaintive call to keep in touch with one another in the woodland, dense hedgerows and tangled corners they hang out in. 

This is one of easiest bird calls to mimic, as it’s so like a human whistle. Imagine you’ve just experienced a minor disappointment, and then whistle ‘oh’.

Once you’ve heard one, the trick is to see it. They don’t sit out in the open much, as other finches do, preferring to be among the leaves. Even the males, with their stronger pink-red chests and bellies, can be easy to miss. 

The clinching feature is often the broad white rump, visible when they fly. If you are tracking bullfinches along a line of trees, with luck one or more them will fly in front of the greenery or across your path, low enough for that flash of white to show. 

The song of the bullfinch is as unobtrusive as the rest of the bird’s behaviour. It’s a series of off-key fluty notes mixed in with those whistles (as in the recording above). The whole thing is easily lost when there are more extroverted species singing. 

And yet, this modest offering belies their abilities, because bullfinches are adept mimics, and can be taught to whistle a human tune like a parrot. In fact some can master up to three tunes, which made them sought-after in the 19th century, when they would be kept and trained. 

Have a listen to this jaunty number, as featured on Autumnwatch. It’s hard to believe it’s made by a bird.

About a third of our bullfinches have disappeared since the late 1960s, but they are still widespread across Britain, away from the uplands and bare coastal areas.

Listen for that disappointed sound whenever you’re in a tall tangle.