Chaffinch
Fringilla coelebs
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An accelerating rattle that ends in a flourish — and a different accent depending where you are.
One of our commonest birds. Males are handsome in spring, with a blue-grey crown, pink-flushed face and breast and bold white shoulder flashes; females are subdued olive-brown but share the same white wing bars, obvious in flight. Chaffinches are in every Dumfries garden, park, wood and hedgerow, feeding mostly on the ground beneath feeders rather than on them.
Behaviour
The song is a distinctive accelerating descending rattle finishing in a short flourish, often described as a fast bowler's run-up. Young males learn it from neighbours, so chaffinch song varies regionally — birds in one glen can sound measurably different from another. In winter they flock on stubble and woodland floor, and are joined by continental birds, including occasional bramblings among them.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Finches (Fringillidae)
- Size
- 14.5 cm · sparrow-sized
- UK status
- Green-listed
Photo by caroline legg, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons