User Contributed Dictionary
Interjection
- An expression of disdain.
Scots
Pronunciation
- , /pɪʃ/, /pIS/
- Rhymes: -ɪʃ
Etymology
From late .Noun
Derived terms
Adjective
- In the context of "vulgar|lang=sco": Not very good, in fact quite bad.
Interjection
- An expression of disdain.
References
DSL}}Western Apache
Pronunciation
Extensive Definition
A pish is an imitated bird call (usually a
scold or alarm call) used by birders and ornithologists to attract
birds (generally Passerines). The
action of making the sound is known as pishing. 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.
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.
Because pishing disrupts the natural behaviour of
a bird, birding organisations consider it unethical and immoral 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.