What exactly is a calling bird?

It was originally a “colly” bird, meaning a black bird, probably some kind of corvid.
It’s probably a pretty poor idea to capture them, though, they are pretty vengeful characters.

Merry Happies, @stanleybmanly

Not sure, but I have four of them. I’ll throw in three french hens and a couple of turtle doves to go with your partridge in your pear tree.

Hmm. I always thought it was a bird that calls, in the sense of bird calls —the sound it utters, which may not be “birdsong” as we think of it but is still a vocal noise.