Goldcrest mimicry

[Roger B.]

Today I heard a bird singing that I'm fairly sure was a goldcrest. However, the song was peppered with calls 'borrowed' from other species - including blue tit, long-tailed tit and chaffinch.

I don't recall ever hearing a goldcrest mimicking other birds before. Is it unusual?

[glsammy]

Are you sure there were no other birds hiding nearby? Goldcrests tend to go around with other birds, especially other tits. The only Goldcrest call I've heard is the high intensity shrill short sharp call. If that makes sense!

[Roger B.]

Thanks for the response.

All the sounds seemed to be coming from a single bird, which was hidden from view in a bushy conifer.

The song was fairly quiet and subdued, a bit like the 'subsong' you sometimes hear from robins and blackbirds.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Roger B.

Thanks for the response.

All the sounds seemed to be coming from a single bird, which was hidden from view in a bushy conifer.

The song was fairly quiet and subdued, a bit like the 'subsong' you sometimes hear from robins and blackbirds.

Robin sub-song was going to be my guess but as you are already familiar with that I'm not sure what to suggest - I have never heard a goldcrest mimic anything...

What about a bullfinch? They are suprisingly good at hiding and have a very quiet but varied thin song..... Though I suspect it is too early for them really....

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

The only thing I can think of apart from the above is a Starling....I have heard numerous calls from the Starling and I read somewhere that they can have something in the range of 30 different calls.

Cheers Jacob

[Roger B.]

It definitely wasn't a starling!

[Deer Stalker]

Goldcrest also do a Tit-like chattering, but I've never heard chaffinch in it.

[GlendaleGuy]

What made you think it was Goldcrest? They don't mimic and their song is very high pitched and scratchy, they certainly can't do low notes like l-t tit. It's also too early for them to sing.
Do you mean that it was 'singing' or was it 'calling' instead? What part of the country was it in?

[paulchandler6]

I'd tend to agree with Gill on this one. Robin would be my most likely candidate.

Paul

[Roger B.]

Originally Posted by GlendaleGuy

What made you think it was Goldcrest? They don't mimic and their song is very high pitched and scratchy, they certainly can't do low notes like l-t tit. It's also too early for them to sing.
Do you mean that it was 'singing' or was it 'calling' instead? What part of the country was it in?

Yes, I think that the bird was singing rather than calling - it was a more or less continuous flow of sounds, which lasted for several minutes.

Most of the song sounded like goldcrest, but it was interspersed with mimicked calls. I've become familiar with many bird songs/calls over the years, but I've never heard anything quite like it.

It didn't have many of the characteristics of robin song, but I'm aware that you occasionally come across individual birds that produce aberrant songs. For instance, last year I saw/heard a robin which repeated the same phrase of song over and over again like a stuck record!

The bird was singing in a conifer (yew?) in the boundary hedge of Sheffield Botanical Gardens.