Finland's national bird is the laulujoutsen, the whooper swan — "singing swan" — and it's a comeback story. By the mid-20th century hunting had almost wiped it out in Finland. A hunting ban and a much-loved book by the writer Yrjö Kokko turned that round, and today about a third of all Europe's breeding whooper swans nest in Finland.
The other thing birds do in Finland is tell the time of year. The first kiuru, the first kurki, the first käki — Finns notice, and they tell each other.
Birds Around Town
bird
lintu
hooded crow
varis
magpie
harakka
jackdaw
naakka
house sparrow
varpunen
starling
kottarainen
pigeon
kyyhky
black-headed gull
naurulokki
great tit
talitiainen
blue tit
sinitiainen
bullfinch
punatulkku
chaffinch
peippo
willow warbler
pajulintu
Practice these words
lintu
The two most common birds: pajulintu and peippo, the willow warbler and the chaffinch, together make up almost a third of all the birds breeding in Finland. You'll hear them before you see them, in any wood, from late April and May on.
The laughter gull: nauru is laughter, so naurulokki is literally the "laughter gull," named for its cackling call. Punatulkku, the bullfinch, has puna- (red) at the front — a regular winter visitor at bird tables, and a classic Finnish Christmas-card bird. The town pigeon is formally kyyhky, but in speech everyone calls it a pulu.
Countryside, Forest and Lake Birds
whooper swan
laulujoutsen
common crane
kurki
black-throated diver
kuikka
mallard
sinisorsa
cuckoo
käki
great spotted woodpecker
käpytikka
eagle owl
huuhkaja
white-tailed eagle
merikotka
capercaillie
metso
black grouse
teeri
willow ptarmigan
riekko
grey heron
harmaahaikara
skylark
kiuru
Practice these words
laulujoutsen
The sound of a Finnish lake: the long, wailing call of the kuikka across still water on a summer night is one of the sounds Finns most associate with summer at the mökki, the summer cottage — and a sign of clean water.
Grouse: metso and teeri are the big forest grouse and riekko their northern cousin of the fells and bogs — and you've met one of their relatives already — the pyy in the proverb parempi pyy pivossa, in Finnish idioms and proverbs. The everyday animal names — kotka, pöllö, tikka, pääsky — are in animals in Finnish.
Bird Words
wing
siipi
beak
nokka
feather
sulka
nest
pesä
chick
poikanen
flock
parvi
to fly
lentää
to sing
laulaa
migratory bird
muuttolintu
bird table
lintulauta
fat ball
talipallo
nest box
linnunpönttö
binoculars
kiikarit
birdwatcher
lintuharrastaja
keen birder, twitcher
bongari
Practice these words
siipi
Muuttolintu is a "moving bird": muuttaa is to move house, so a migratory bird is one that moves. In autumn you'll hear muuttolinnut lähtevät, "the migrating birds are leaving," said with real regret.
Talking About Birds
What bird is that?
Mikä lintu tuo on?
Listen, the cuckoo's calling!
Kuuletko, käki kukkuu!
The cranes are flying south.
Kurjet muuttavat etelään.
The birds are back.
Linnut ovat palanneet.
Do you feed the birds in winter?
Ruokitko lintuja talvella?
Look, a swan!
Katso, joutsen!
Practice these words
Mikä lintu tuo on?
Birds and the Finnish Year
Spring arrives by bird. In March and April the migrating birds come back in a recognisable order, and Finns track it closely: the skylark over the fields, the swans on the first open water, then the cranes calling high overhead. There's even a saying for it: kuu kiurusta kesään, "a month from the skylark to summer." Hearing the first käki is a small event, and there's an old belief, known in Finnish folk tradition as across much of Europe, that counting the cuckoo's calls tells you something — girls counted the years until they'd marry, older people the years they had left. The months themselves are in seasons and months.
Winter means the lintulauta. From late autumn, a huge number of Finnish households put out a lintulauta — a bird table — with sunflower seeds and talipallot, fat balls, for the tits, bullfinches and sparrows that stay through the dark months. It's still one of the most widespread small habits in the country, although city housing companies increasingly restrict it because of rats. The rest of the winter vocabulary is in snow, ice and winter words.
And the swans are among the last to leave. The whooper swans hang on until the lakes freeze, and their trumpeting as they finally fly south is one of the sounds of a Finnish late autumn — and, given how close Finland came to losing them, a fitting one for the national bird.