Finches 'flycatching'?

[Blackdogjnr]

Went for a walk around the village this week, stupidly left my bins at home.

Came across a bunch of small birds fluttering around the (highest) treetops, they seemed to be swooping and diving and catching insects on the wing, beautiful it was.

They appeared to be Chaffinches, though I'd never seen this sort of behaviour before. I (possibly mistakenly) assumed they ate seeds and berries etc more often than flies.

They didn't make any of the classic chaffinch calls either, in fact they didn't make a single sound.

I am in Nottingham so think its pretty unlikely that they'd be actual flycatchers or any other migrant/rare visitor...

any thoughts?

[seamusagleann]

sounds more like swallows,house martin behaviour!!!

[aeshna5]

Chaffinches regularly flycatch + glean insects from leaves in the summer, so I'm not too surprised! They also have a pretty wide vocabulary too; probably only Great Tits seem to be more varied.