Bird Sightings: Chaffinch

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Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Chaffinch

Common Chaffinch

Fringilla coelebs

Photography © Debbie Bozkurt
Stornoway - Isle of Lewis - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
April 2007

This is a female bird.

Our chaffinch photographs:

male chaffinch female chaffinch

Chaffinch

Fringilla coelebs

AKA: Pink, Shelfie, (spink, fink, vink - from sound of it's call)

UK Resident Breeder (summer 6 million pairs) BTO, Passage/Winter Visitor

Breeds: (nests in tree-fork) Europe, North Africa, North Asia,

Winters: Asia (Introduced - South Africa, New Zealand)

Habitat: Forest, deciduous woodland, scrub, arable & pasture farmland, villages, parks, gardens

Diet: Mostly seeds (young mostly insects - rare in finches)

Finch: large double white wing bars, white tail edges & greenish rump
Breeding male: reddish underparts & blue-grey cap. Female: drabber & greener.

Max recorded age: 11yrs 7mths, average yrs

Listen to a chaffinch (RSPB site)

Similar birds: brambling

The Latin name of the chaffinch is coelebs. This comes from the Latin for bachelor, and was given to the species by Linnaeus in 1758. In winter Linneaus saw only male chaffinches in Sweden where he lived. (Females from the northern breeding grounds of the chaffinch winter further south).

Second most common breeding bird in UK

Usually prefers to feed under bushes the bird table rather than on a bird feeder.

Debbie's online photo album

Other local bird photographs

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