spink
verb1
Uncommon, Of certain birds To call or vocalize.
Especially chaffinchs and blackbirds
- The Chaffinches ‘‘spinked” as though its presence was not required, but it seemed to be feeding on insects only.1907 September 23, O. V. Aplin, “Notes on the Ornithology of Oxfordshire, 1905–1906”, in The Zoologist, volume XI, number 795, page 323:
- The Linnet called “ Chivvey ” can tweet and spink and song-sing, and is full of clicks and jars, like the other.1909 June 19, “Linnet Singing at Leeds. Unvarnished Reports versus Bluff and Bounce”, in Cage Birds and Bird World, volume XV, number 388, page 587:
4 more examples
- Woodpig was rootling for worms up the brook when he was surprised to see Chaffinch, "spinking" at him from a hazel twig.1949, Denys Watkins-Pitchford, “The Animal Banquet”, in The Little Grey Men, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 144:
- And his voice sounded good, too, and loud and clear, and he put two of his fingers into his mouth and whistled, a piercing, high-pitched scream of a whistle, and there was a sudden silence as though the noise had penetrated the brain of all things and stunned movement; but in a second the spinking blackbird began again his yittering, and all were at song again.1954, Jack Badcock, chapter 3, in Waybent, London: Hutchingson & Co., page 77:
- The cry of this species, which consists of a number of rapidly ‘‘spinking” notes, reminds me of that of the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the United States.1966 January 7 [1964 July 30], Paul Slud, The Birds of Costa Rica, page 65:
- 6 DECEMBER The winter sun is a flat blade of white on the horizon. Blackbirds are spinking, a charmless sound, done by rote.2016, John Lewis-Stempel, “The Turn of the Earth” (chapter VI), in The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland, Doubleday, page 277: