By Magnus Robb, Lukas Pelikan & The Sound Approach

Common Greenshank

The tyu-tyu-tyu of Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia is a sound that resonates across all the continents of the Old World. At night we have recorded it from Portugal to Mongolia and from Finland to Ghana. In Europe, it rarely passes in large numbers, but if you have not detected this species so far at your listening station, it is probably only a matter of time.

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Common Greenshank 
Tringa nebularia 
Gun Galuut, Tuv Almag, Mongolia, 21:15, 23 May 2008 (Magnus Robb). Flight calls of a single individual starting its migration in the evening. For a zoomed-in sonagram see e) below. Background: a flock of Common Sandpipers migrating with pip-pip-pip calls. 08.005.MR.03218.02                

Please use headphones

Let’s not complicate things. This is one of the most instantly recognisable flight calls of any wader, and it sounds the same night or day. Once learned, it is not easily forgotten. Fortunately, Greenshank rarely does anything else while migrating at night, and the variations heard within flocks are only slight.

Identification

tyu-tyu-tyu

  • low-pitched tyu-tyu-tyu, all notes very similar
  • each note starts with a consonant, often showing as a ‘foreleg’ in sonagrams
  • afterwards each note descends in pitch, a concave descent (ie, gradually leveling out)
  • most calls have 2 to 4 notes; in flocks, the number may be higher
  • all notes at same pitch; the tyu-tyu-tyu does not rise or fall markedly as a whole
  • notes never joined together
  • frequencies from 1.5 – 3.3 kHz (mean min 2.2, mean max 3.0; n = 40)

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a) Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Leziria Grande, Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal, 01:52, 27 August 2018. Single three-note nocturnal flight call. 180827.MR.015242.01

b) Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Leziria Grande, Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal, 21:02, 14 April 2019. Two nocturnal flight calls; first one shown. Background: Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus. 190414.MR.210213.01

c) Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Leziria Grande, Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal, 02:13, 27 August 2018. Several nocturnal flight calls; second one shown. Background: Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus phoenicopterus, Common Barn Owl Tyto alba and Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola. 180827.MR.021300.12

d) Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Mole National Park, Savannah region, Ghana, 03:11, 19 November 2019. Single nocturnal flight call at very close range, with Doppler effect. 191119.MR.031148.02

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e) Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Gun Galuut, Tuv Almag, Mongolia, 21:15, 23 May 2008 (Magnus Robb). Flight calls of a single individual starting its migration at the start of the night; first one shown. For a longer version of this recording, with a zoomed-out sonagram, see top of page. Background: a flock of Common Sandpipers Actitis hypoleucos migrating with pip-pip-pip calls. 08.005.MR.03218.02

f) Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Leziria Grande, Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal, 21:33, 14 April 2019. Four nocturnal flight calls at fairly close range; third call shown. Then two distant overlapping calls indicating a second individual. Background: Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus and Kentish Plover Anarhynchus alexandrinus. 190414.MR.213326.01

g) Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Cabo Espichel, Setúbal, Portugal, 06:59, 22 October 2010. Single flight call of a nocturnal migrant. 101022.MR.065920.11

h) Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Leziria Grande, Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal, 02:33, 27 August 2018. Four flight calls of a nocturnal migrant followed by wingbeats; second call shown. Background: Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus phoenicopterus, Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus and Common Redshank T totanus. 180827.MR.023340.12

Effects of recording quality

  • In clearer recordings, there is likely to be a layer of harmonics at double the frequency of the fundamental.
  • In distant recordings, the lower, quieter end of each note may merge with its reflections, and only the start of each note may be distinct.

Similar NFCs

  • Common Redshank Tringa totanus has tyuu-luu-luu NFCs typically with three notes, but only the first is Greenshank-like (descent with concave shape). The following notes are level or slightly arched and much less strongly accented. Only occasionally does a Greenshank NFC have the first note much higher and more accented than those that follow, and even then, the contrast is much less than in Redshank.
  • Eurasian Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus may occasionally have NFCs with just three almost identical notes. However, the notes have an arched shape, not a concave descending shape.

Where and when?

  • anywhere: over towns, forests, deserts, offshore, but more likely at the coast
  • nocturnal and diurnal: uses same flight calls day and night
  • typically in the middle of the night, but recorded any time between dusk and dawn

Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Maximum estimates of calling individuals per night: low, medium and high activity. See introduction for a full explanation.