Pish

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A pish is an imitated bird call (usually a scold or alarm call) used by birders and ornithologists to attract birds (generally passerines). [1] The action of making the sound is known as pishing or spishing. [2] This technique is used by scientists to increase the effectiveness of bird diversity surveys, and by birders to attract species that they might not otherwise see.

Pishing is used most effectively in the Holarctic, where it is thought to work due to its similarity to the scold calls of tits and chickadees (birds in the family Paridae). These scold calls, a form of mobbing behaviour, attract other birds which come in to establish the nature of the potential threat. Acoustical analysis of pishing calls and the mobbing calls of tits shows that they share a frequency metric not used by other birds. Not surprisingly, pishing has little effect on birds in those parts of the world without tits or chickadees. [3]

Another study noted that only passerine are attracted by pishing. Apart from the mobbing call hypothesis, it has also been suggested that pishing may be treated as an invitation to join a "mixed-species foraging flock" and birds do not themselves vocalize or show aggressive behaviour. The same study noted that pishing did not work in the old-world tropics and suggested that it may be due to the lower densities of migrants. [4]

Pishing has also been found to work effectively in Southern Africa (imitating a call of the rattling cisticola). It also works effectively in Australia where, despite the absence of any members of the Paridae, a number of passerine species can be attracted. Some birders in Australia use a variant of pishing called "squeaking" (making a kissing sound through pursed lips or against the back of one's hand) to which white-eared honeyeaters, several species of whistlers and grey fantails show an initial response and in turn attract other species.

Because pishing or squeaking disrupts the natural behaviour of a bird, birding organisations consider it unethical to make excessive use of this method of attracting birds. Such organisations recommend that, once the bird has been viewed, the birder cease pishing and allow the bird to return to its natural behaviour. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tit (bird)</span> Family of small passerine birds

The tits, chickadees, and titmice constitute the Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and Africa. Most were formerly classified in the genus Parus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ground tit</span> Species of bird

The ground tit, Tibetan ground-tit or Hume's ground-tit is a bird of the Tibetan plateau north of the Himalayas. The peculiar appearance confused ornithologists in the past who called it as Hume's groundpecker and still later as Hume's ground jay or Tibetan ground jay assuming that it belonged to the family Corvidae that includes the crows and jays. Although morphologically confusing, the species has since been identified using molecular sequence comparisons as being a member of the tit family (Paridae) and is the only species in the genus Pseudopodoces. It is found in the Tibetan Plateau of China, India, Nepal & Bhutan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coal tit</span> Species of bird

The coal tit or cole tit,, is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa. The black-crested tit is now usually included in this species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willow tit</span> Species of passerine bird in the tit family Paridae

The willow tit is a passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and across the Palearctic. The plumage is grey-brown and off-white with a black cap and bib. It is more of a conifer specialist than the closely related marsh tit, which explains it breeding much further north. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian blue tit</span> Species of bird

The Eurasian blue tit is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parrotbill</span> Group of birds

The parrotbills are a family, Paradoxornithidae, of passerine birds that are primarily native to East and Southeast Asia, though feral populations exist elsewhere. They are generally small, long-tailed birds that inhabit reedbeds and similar habitats. They feed mainly on seeds, e.g. of grasses, to which their bill, as the name implies, is well-adapted. Living in tropical to southern temperate climates, they are usually non-migratory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-capped chickadee</span> Species of small, non-migratory, North American songbird

The black-capped chickadee is a small, nonmigratory, North American songbird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a passerine bird in the tit family, the Paridae. It is the state bird of Massachusetts and Maine in the United States, and the provincial bird of New Brunswick in Canada. It is well known for its ability to lower its body temperature during cold winter nights, its good spatial memory to relocate the caches where it stores food, and its boldness near humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolina chickadee</span> Species of bird

The Carolina chickadee is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boreal chickadee</span> Species of bird

The boreal chickadee is a small passerine songbird in the tit family Paridae. It is found in the boreal forests of Canada and the northern United States and remains within this range all year. This bird is known for its high pitched trill patterns used in communication with other birds and food storage habits in preparation for winter months.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himalayan black-lored tit</span> Species of bird

The Himalayan black-lored tit, also known as simply black-lored tit, is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. The yellow-cheeked tit is probably its closest relative, and it may also be related to the yellow tit. These three tits almost certainly form a distinct lineage, as indicated by morphology, and mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azure tit</span> Species of bird

The azure tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout Russia, Central Asia, northwest China, Manchuria, and Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain chickadee</span> Species of bird

The mountain chickadee is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican chickadee</span> Species of bird

The Mexican chickadee is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is still often placed in the genus Parus with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data and morphology suggest that separating Poecile more adequately expresses these birds' relationships. The American Ornithologists' Union had been treating Poecile as distinct genus for some time already.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut-backed chickadee</span> Species of bird

The chestnut-backed chickadee, formerly Parus rufescens, is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultan tit</span> Species of bird

The sultan tit is an Asian forest bird with a yellow crest, dark bill, black upperparts plumage and yellow underparts. The sexes are similar. The female has greenish-black upperparts and a yellowish throat. The young bird is duller than the adult and has a shorter crest. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Melanochlora, which is fairly distinct from the Parus tits with the nearest relative being the monotypic Sylviparus.

<i>Poecile</i> Genus of birds in the tit family Paridae

Poecile is a genus of birds in the tit family Paridae. It contains 15 species, which are scattered across North America, Europe and Asia; the North American species are the chickadees. In the past, most authorities retained Poecile as a subgenus within the genus Parus, but treatment as a distinct genus, initiated by the American Ornithologists Union, is now widely accepted. This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis.

<i>Melaniparus</i> Genus of birds

Melaniparus is a genus of birds in the tit family. The species were formerly placed in the speciose genus Parus but were moved to Melaniparus based on a molecular phylogenetic analysis published in 2013 that showed that the members formed a distinct clade. The genus Melaniparus had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850. The type species was subsequently designated as the southern black tit. The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek melas, melanos "black" and the genus Parus introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-shouldered black tit</span> Species of bird

The white-shouldered black tit, also known as the pale-eyed black tit, is a passerine bird in the tit family. It breeds in a belt across Africa from Senegal in the west to Kenya and Ethiopia in the east. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the more southerly white-winged black tit Melaniparus leucomelas and, like that species, it is mainly black with a white wing patch, but differs in that it has a pale eye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caspian tit</span> Species of bird

The Caspian tit is a passerine bird in the tit family. It breeds in the deciduous mountain forests of northern Iran, just extending into Azerbaijan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian black-lored tit</span> Species of bird

The Indian black-lored tit, Indian tit, or Indian yellow tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. The yellow-cheeked tit is probably its closest relative, and both may be related to the yellow tit. These three tits almost certainly form a distinct lineage as evidenced by morphology, and mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis. The subgenus name Macholophus may apply for them.

References

  1. Zimmerling, J. R.; Ankney, C. D. (2000). "A technique that increases detectability of passerine species during point counts". Journal of Field Ornithology. 71 (4): 638–649. doi:10.1648/0273-8570-71.4.638. JSTOR   4514533.
  2. Bauer, H. G. (1989). "Spishing and white noise induce mobbing in Passerine birds: A field experiment". Die Vogelwarte. 35: 49–58.
  3. Langham, G. M.; Contreras, T. A.; Sieving, K. E. (2006). "Why pishing works: Titmouse (Paridae) scolds elicit a generalized response in bird communities" (PDF). Écoscience. 13 (4): 485–496. doi:10.2980/1195-6860(2006)13[485:WPWTPS]2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  4. Smith, N. G. (April 1975). "'Spshing Noise': Biological Significance of Its Attraction and Nonattraction by Birds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 72 (4): 1411–1414. Bibcode:1975PNAS...72.1411G. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.4.1411 . PMC   432544 . PMID   16592238.
  5. Zimmerling, Ryan (Fall 2005). "Bringing in the Birds" (PDF). Birdwatch Canada. 3: 10–12.