Have you ever encountered a squirrel chattering like crazy in the forest and wondered why they act this way?
A very common experience for beginners of nature observation is when you step outside for a bit of relaxing time in the woods, only to have the local squirrel scream and chatter the whole time like their life depends on it.
If you don’t know much about animals noises, you might at first think this is a bird… but if you track down the noise, you soon realize it’s a squirrel chattering over and over at a high volume.
So why do squirrels chatter like maniacs? There are several reasons why squirrels will yell and chatter repetitively. Squirrels will chatter:
- To protect their territory from rival squirrels
- To alert their neighbours of predators in the area
- To scold and annoy a predator so it will leave the area
- To beg for food (Baby squirrels)
- To initiate mating with another squirrel
They will continue to emit their noises until they’re confident it has been heard and understood by its desired audience, or until the cause of their distress has left the area.
This is why squirrel chatter often seems almost never-ending to outside listeners. It can sometimes last for incredibly long periods of time that will make you wonder if they ever stop.
As bizarre as this behavior might seem, there is actually a logical survival reason why they do this. If there wasn’t, they would stop doing it!
There are always good reasons and motivations for why squirrels make such extravagant noises and body language, and for the skilled naturalist or budding wildlife tracker, you can learn to understand what squirrels are telling you!
So today let’s dive into the world of squirrel language and learn how their chattering works in some of the most common situations.
Different Squirrel Chatter Types
If you want to know why a squirrel is chattering, the first thing you need to do is figure out what kind of squirrel you’re dealing with.
There are many different species of squirrels, and while they all have similarities, there are also significant differences that affect their vocalization strategy.
The good news is squirrel species are usually quite easy to tell apart by their sounds and habitat.
Most bioregions only have 1 or 2 different types of squirrels to choose from, which makes them much easier to identify than birds.
The 2 main questions you need to ask for confident squirrel identification are:
- Is it a ground squirrel or a tree squirrel?
- Is it a communal squirrel or a territorial squirrel?
If you can answer those 2 basic questions, then a few more quick observations about color, size & ear/face shape will tell you exactly what species of squirrel you’re watching. It’s really that simple!
First – notice whether you’re dealing with a ground squirrel or a tree squirrel. I know this is a pretty basic distinction, but it is very important because this has a dramatic effect on how squirrels use their calls & sounds.
Ground Squirrels VS Tree Squirrel Vocalizations
Ground squirrels tend to live in open habitats like plains or meadows. You’ll often find them living amongst large colonies that burrow underground for safety since they’re not great climbers.
Tree squirrels on the other hand, spend a lot of their time up in the trees. They live in forests or mixed landscapes.
This one basic difference already gives us a lot of really useful information about what it means when you hear a squirrel making noise.
Living underground vs in the shelter of trees results in dramatically different levels of exposure to dramatically different types of predators.
On the ground, squirrels need to be acutely aware of both aerial & ground predators.
As a result, they tend to spend a lot less time being territorial, and a lot more time communally watching and communicating with each other about danger.
Ground squirrels have much higher incentive to not attract attention by making a lot of noise, so when you hear ground squirrels vocalizing, it usually means there’s a good reason.
With enough practice watching & listening to ground squirrels, it’s fascinating to witness how they can have one call for coyotes, another call for weasels, and even more calls for hawks. Pretty fascinating stuff!
Tree Squirrels And Their Confusing Sounds
Tree squirrels have a lot more freedom than ground squirrels to make different types of noises in a wider variety of situations.
Their excellent climbing abilities make it much easier to quickly deal with ground predators and they also have the added protection of being surrounded by a dense canopy of leaves.
As a result, tree squirrels are typically much more confusing with their calls and sounds than ground squirrels.
It gets even more confusing when you throw in the fact that some tree squirrels are quite communal, living in peaceful treetop groups similar to their ground dwelling cousins.
While other tree squirrels have gone a step further and completely broken the communal pattern, making them some of the most highly territorial animals in the forest!
Territorial Squirrels VS Communal Squirrels
An important thing to remember about tree squirrels is that some of them live peacefully in groups, while others bicker endlessly over food resources & territory.
This difference has a huge impact on the underlying reasons why your local squirrels are making noise, and this is what often makes tree squirrel vocalizations so incredibly difficult to understand.
Let’s take a look at two of the most common examples: First – a communal squirrel (gray squirrels). And second – a territorial squirrel (red squirrels).
Gray Squirrels (A Socially Friendly Example)
Gray squirrels are one of the most common species of squirrel you’ll encounter living in trees, so this is a good place to start.
Gray squirrels are the quintessential city squirrel, often seen traveling along power lines and making big fluffy nests in deciduous trees.
They come in black, white and reddish shades, so color alone is not a reliable ID feature.
However, one of the best clues that you’re dealing with a gray squirrel colony is when you see multiple squirrels coexisting peacefully together, spending some time on the ground and some in the treetops.
Here’s a little video of a gray squirrel doing some pretty typical tree squirrel behavior, with a little bark in there at the start (more on this barking soon).
Red Squirrels And Douglas Squirrels (A Territorial Example)
In my area on the east coast, we also have Red Squirrels who occupy forested regions, while gray squirrels tend to live in the cities.
Red Squirrels are a bit smaller than Gray Squirrels, but the main difference is that Red Squirrels are highly territorial (and the same is true for Douglas squirrels on the west coast).
This means you almost never see them mixing with other squirrels except during courtship, mating, and raising the next generation.
It also means a lot more of their vocal repertoire is devoted to territorial vocalizations.
This is why it’s very important before you try to understand what a squirrel is saying – Make sure you know what type of squirrel you’re dealing with (Ground vs Tree and Social vs Territorial).
Squirrel Chattering Calls & Examples
So let’s take a look at some examples of common squirrel chattering you might hear in your area and what it all means!
#1 Trill/Rattle Call: Territorial Vocalization
The first sound everyone should learn when it comes to squirrels is the trill or rattling call.
Here’s an example of what this sounds like (at 17 seconds):
The trill/rattle call is a very common sound made by Red Squirrels & Douglas Squirrels during territorial situations.
Whenever you hear this rattling sound being made by a squirrel, it’s a sign that multiple squirrels have setup their home base in the same area, and they’re actively competing for territory.
Sometimes you’ll notice squirrels have a particular perch or several key places around their patch of forest where they look out and make this call.
Territorial calls can also be mixed with alarm calls, which can become very confusing to sort out if you don’t know why this happens (more on this in the next section).
#2 Squirrel Alarm Calls
Very often when people talk about squirrels chattering like maniacs in the woods, what they’re really referring to is an alarm call.
These calls are a loud, repetitive sequence of chattering & kicking up a storm of noise, sometimes lasting for incredibly long periods of time.
Squirrel alarm calls are used to:
- Gain advanced warning of nearby dangers
- Discourage predators from sticking around in a squirrel’s territory
It’s important to realize that just because a squirrel is giving an alarm call, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll always see a cat or hawk right next to the squirrel.
Predators spend their entire lives practicing stealth, so it can take a bit of good tracking to figure out exactly what’s happening.
And sometimes the cause of a squirrel’s alarm is actually YOU!
So if you want to track the source of alarm, it’s important to watch and listen carefully for clues in the squirrels voice. Here’s how it works…
Listening For Squirrel Alarm Sub-Vocals
Here’s an example of a red squirrel alarm call:
Whenever you hear this complex chattering mixture of activity, it’s important to notice there are actually multiple sounds being made simultaneously.
Do you hear how part of the call is sort of squeaky and high pitched, while another part of the call is much deeper, in a more mid-range or lower end of the sound spectrum?
These audible differences help to reveal a lot about the nature of the threat and whether a predator is coming from the air or the ground (See research – Red Squirrels produce predator-class specific alarm calls).
Ground Predators:
When squirrels alarm at ground predators, their chattering tends to include more of the deeper barks & chuckling calls.
These sounds in the midrange of a squirrel’s voice are easier to locate by sound, and help to identify it’s location.
Giving away their location is an advantage when dealing with ground predators like cats, foxes, badgers and bobcats because there’s not much danger of being pursued by these animals up in the trees.
There are also typically quite demonstrative body language clues that go along with this sound like tail flicking and stomping their feet which help to flag the attention of other squirrels & birds in the area.
Pay attention to which direction the squirrel is facing, and how long the alarm continues.
Also listen for alarm calls from other animals like birds to help narrow your search and locate the animal.
Aerial Predators:
When squirrels alarm at aerial predators, their vocalizations tend to include a lot more higher pitched and squeaky qualities.
High pitched sounds are difficult to locate in the forest, so this is a way for squirrels to sound the alarm, while staying hidden from predator who can follow them in the trees.
You’ll notice when this happens their body language is also completely different. Rather than flipping their tail and calling attention to themselves, you might notice squirrels plastering themselves against a tree and being very still.
This is a good sign that your squirrel is under pressure from something like a hawk, owl, or eagle, etc.
Of course – different types of squirrels express alarm with some differences in voice, however the same agitated body language, tail flipping and extended chattering will help you make sense of what’s happening.
For contrast, here’s a Gray squirrel alarm example:
Mixed Alarms & Territorial Calls
If you live in a place that has territorial squirrels like Red Squirrels or Douglas Squirrels, it’s important to realize that sometimes you will also hear calls that sound like a mixture of chattering alarms combined with territorial rattles.
This confused the heck out of me when I first started studying squirrels because it sounds like a really intense alarm.
Instead, when you hear alarm calls mixed with territorial calls, this is a sign that you’re actually hearing a close range territorial squabble between two squirrels.
If you approach the noise and look carefully, you’ll notice there are two squirrels present when this behavior is happening, and it’s actually not an alarm at all.
Here’s an example of mixed alarm & territorial calls with Red Squirrels:
Notice you start by hearing a series of intense rattles, then as the clip goes on, the squirrel mom gets more and more agitated until she starts calling back.
It’s sounds like an alarm but it’s actually not!
Scolding VS Warning Alarms
As I mentioned above, it’s also helpful to know there are actually two different reasons why squirrels make alarm calls.
Sometimes squirrels detect the presence of a predator nearby in the forest and they’re calling out of fear or generalized warning that something is happening.
But other times, squirrels will actually do a behavior that seems almost like they’re scolding an animal to annoy it and hopefully make it go away.
These are two subtle differences but it can help you make sense of why a squirrel is alarming, and how far away the threat is.
Scolding tends to happen at close range, so you’re more likely to see the animal invader.
Typically in the case of long range alarms, you need to do a bit more investigation and combine your observations of squirrel alarms with bird alarms in order to solve the mystery.
This is a bit more advanced than what we’re covering here, but I discussed more on this topic in my beginner’s guide to bird language if you’d like to go deeper!
#3 Courtship & Mating
Of course, squirrels don’t only make chattering noises and calls to defend from predators.
There are other times like during courtship when squirrels can be incredibly loud and vocal.
Sometimes you’ll hear a chattering squirrel noise that again sounds very much like an alarm.
In fact, the actual sounds and calls can be identical to the alarm examples above, but if you watch carefully, you’ll notice that the squirrel is dashing madly through the branches chasing another squirrel at close range.
When squirrels are chasing other squirrels, it’s a sign that they’re not worried about predators. So even though the actual noise might sound very similar, the context is completely different!
When a female squirrel is showing signs that she’s ready to begin mating, male squirrels can sense it.
You’ll notice the males become particularly territorial and vocal around this time.
All this energy and activity can be directed towards the female as he begins chasing her around the forest.
And in places where there is competition between multiple males for the opportunity to mate, this activity can also be directed towards other males.
Sometimes it’s tough to determine whether you’re seeing territorial chasing or chasing for the purpose of mating. However if you continue watching for the end of the chase, you can eventually put the pieces together.
The key thing to recognize here is that all this chattering is directed towards other squirrels rather than a predator like an owl or cat.
This is why it’s very important to See AND Hear whenever possible to determine the true cause of squirrel chattering.
Luckily, the frantic activity of calls being made between squirrels are typically quite easy to solve because all you have to do is watch the squirrel for a few minutes and it will be obvious that he’s chasing another.
Squirrel Babies & Juvenile Calls
Most of the time when squirrels are newborn and living inside the nest, you won’t even notice them making calls or sounds.
I once watched as a mother squirrel transferred her babies one by one from a bird nest box in my yard, out to a tree cavity in a red maple.
The babies were completely silent through this whole process, which took about 30 minutes because she had to carry them through the woods about 100 feet in her mouth, then travel back to get the next one.
She even dropped one of them from 7 feet up and it didn’t make a peep! (Don’t worry, it was uninjured)
As the squirrels get older and start to resemble adults, they gradually begin to imitate their mom and will occasionally make certain calls.
My best personal experience with this was a time I was walking in the forest during late spring and got a bit too close to a mom squirrel with her juveniles.
She started alarming, and then over the course of about 5 minutes, all her children joined in the alarm.
Their voices were a little bit quieter and a touch higher pitched, but it made a pretty incredible racket with at least 5 squirrels all screaming at the same time.
Chattering + Tails = Squirrel Language
To complement the noises they give off when being approached by predators or communicating with others; squirrels also use very demonstrative body language to help communicate their thoughts to others.
The tail movements of a squirrel are almost like a second language for them.
To really understand squirrel language, the key is combining your knowledge of calls & sounds with the overall body language and movement of the squirrel’s tail.
Conclusion: Why Do Squirrels Make So Much Noise?
When first looking at a squirrel, it’s easy to realize they aren’t the biggest or scariest looking creatures. This is why they need to develop other ways to protect themselves from danger.
Sometimes the best defence if you lack the size to protect yourself is to have a big voice!
The cool thing is now we humans can learn to use these calls too and squirrel language can help us interpret the secret messages of a forest.
Now when you hear them chirping in the park, see if you can recognize what they’re communicating and earn yourself the title of “Squirrel Whisperer”!
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