The birds aren’t singing and many aren’t even making contact calls but you’ll still hear something in the forest that sounds like a bird.
Listen to the video above as a chipmunk makes chirpy calls that resemble a northern cardinal — except that they’re too fast and “sweet.”
Chipmunks make sounds we don’t expect from such a small body. Lang Elliott recorded three of them: “chip”, “tock” and squeak. Click here to hear.
Want to know what they mean? Jim McCormac explains them in Deciphering the language of chipmunks.
You’ll get a lot of practice with these sounds in the weeks ahead. The chipmunks are in overdrive and very vocal, storing up food for the winter.
(video by PAphotofun on YouTube. Chipmunk audio by Lang Elliott via Wildlife of Connecticut website)
WOW this is cool! Thanks, Kate, for having the uncanny ability to ALWAYS be on top of just what I’m wondering! The grinnies are out in force right now for sure! xo
They can be very noisy. I wouldn’t mind them so much but they keep eating my portulaca flowers. When they’re really loud I know one is on the porch.
The chippies are a great warning system in our backyard. They let me and the birds know when the neighbor’s cat is lurking around and when the hawk is perched on the fencepost. My dogs have caught on to the chippies language and now come running to bark at the cat.
Thank you so much for the link to Jim McCormac’s blog, Kate! Just as him, I have never associated the “tock”/clucking sound with chipmunks, while the other two sounds are pretty clear… Very cool.