What bird says potato chip?

The bird calling po-ta-to-chip is almost always an American Goldfinch flying over. Those quick notes are its flight call, given as the bird travels in a wavy, bounding path, calling during each burst of wingbeats and going quiet as it coasts. You can hear it in every season over weedy fields, roadsides, open woods and yards with feeders. In the West the Lesser Goldfinch uses the same places, and in winter Pine Siskins often travel with goldfinches, so it helps to know how they differ.

Listen: the likeliest bird

Audubon's field guide writes the call as a bright per-chick-o-ree, also rendered potato-chips, and says it is delivered in flight in time with each rise and dip. Wikipedia notes that one of the goldfinch's several calls sounds like po-ta-to-chip to the listener, and gives per-chic-o-ree as another way to write it. Two spellings, one bird: if you hear either phrase from the sky, start with the goldfinch.

The flight is the trick to the rhythm. Goldfinches fly in a wave, a few wingbeats lifting the bird before it folds its wings and coasts down in an arc, then flaps again. Wikipedia says the birds tend to call during the flapping and fall silent during the coast. So the notes arrive in bursts, po-ta-to-chip, pause, po-ta-to-chip, pause, each one riding a single bounce. Once you connect the sound with that roller-coaster path, you start noticing goldfinches overhead wherever there are weedy edges.

Where and when you hear it

Audubon says American Goldfinches are found at all seasons in semi-open country: open, weedy ground with some trees and bushes for shelter, thistle patches, roadsides, open woods and edges. In winter some move into very open fields farther from trees. Outside the breeding season they forage in flocks, in weedy fields and at feeders, so the flight call often comes from several birds at once, and Audubon adds that winter flocks make musical, plaintive calls of their own.

Migration is irregular and happens mostly by day. More birds stay in the North in winters with a good food supply, and peak movements come in mid-fall and early spring. One more thing that throws people off: color. Wikipedia notes that the male is bright yellow in summer and olive in winter, so a dull, olive bird calling po-ta-to-chip over a snowy field is still a goldfinch.

Other small finches overhead

In the West the American Goldfinch shares much of its range with the Lesser Goldfinch, in the same fields, scrub, feeders and edges. Writing in Audubon magazine, Tom and Lucas Stephenson say the females of the two can be especially tough to tell apart, and they point to the calls. The American Goldfinch has a short, clear, falling call usually repeated in quick sequence, plus a longer, more complex rising call. The Lesser's rising call is simpler and shorter, its falling call is a much slower slur, and it adds a simple, harsh chet that may repeat. Its song also drops in single notes borrowed from other species, which makes it sound more jumbled than the American's.

Pine Siskins are the winter complication. Audubon calls the siskin a goldfinch in disguise, similar in size, shape and behavior, often found with goldfinches in winter and arriving with them at feeders. Its song sounds like a hoarse goldfinch. The giveaway is a distinctive rising, buzzy bzzzzzt. Siskins are also unpredictable: Audubon says they come south in huge numbers some winters and are very scarce in others, so a buzzy note inside your goldfinch flock is worth a second listen.

How to tell which one you heard

• Bright notes in packets, one per bounce of a wavy flight: American Goldfinch.
• A harsh chet or slow, slurred calls, in the West: Lesser Goldfinch.
• A long, rising buzz in the middle of the twitter: Pine Siskin, mostly in winter and often in the same flock as goldfinches.
• Watch the flight. A bounding, roller-coaster path with calls during each burst of wingbeats is classic goldfinch.
• Do not rule it out on color. A winter male American Goldfinch is olive, not yellow.

If the flock moves through too fast to sort out, Warble can listen and name the birds from their calls.

Questions people ask

Warble is a game, not a field guide. Facts about birds on this page come from the sources above.