All species › Passerines › Finches › Common Chaffinch
Common Chaffinch
Fringilla coelebs | Vink | Pinzón vulgar
The Chaffinch is probably Europe's most numerous breeding bird, and from March its accelerating phrase pours out of every treeline. It is also the finch that teaches most birders to read wing pattern as an identification tool.
Voice
The song is a short accelerating, descending rattle ending in a flourish, rendered chip-chip-chip-cherry-erry-chippyweeoo, given from late February into June and varying by regional dialect. Calls: a loud springy pink and, especially in damp weather, a plaintive hweet.
Recording: Hannu Varkki — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Identification
Both sexes show two white wingbars, white outer tail feathers and a greenish rump. The summer male has a blue-grey crown and nape, a rust-brown mantle and a brick-pink breast; in winter all of this is dulled by brown feather fringes. The female is plain olive-brown but shows the same striking wing pattern. Juveniles resemble the female.
Confusion species
Brambling is the critical species: it has orange shoulders and breast, a white rump instead of a greenish one, and a yellow-and-black bill pattern in winter. Female Chaffinches are sometimes passed off as House Sparrows, but they are slimmer, unstreaked above and always show the double white wingbar.
Habitat
Woodland of every kind, from conifer plantation to old broadleaf forest, plus parks, avenues, orchards, gardens and hedgebanks. In winter it flocks on stubbles, in beech woods and around farm feeding places, often mixed with Bramblings and other finches.
Range and movements
Breeds from northern Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. Northern and eastern birds move south-west in huge numbers; in October steady streams pass along the Dutch coast. Spain likewise receives vast numbers of winter birds on top of its own breeders, which nest up into the montane forests of the Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada.
- Resident
- Breeding (summer)
- Winter
- Passage
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
Where and when to look
In March and April every male sings from a fixed high perch, so half an hour of listening maps out a whole hedgerow. In October it pays to stand on a coastal dune or seawall at sunrise for the visible migration. In winter flocks always check for odd wing patterns: a Brambling is often mixed in.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened (IUCN: Least Concern) and still extremely numerous. Declines have been noted in parts of north-west Europe, linked to a parasitic disease spread mainly at garden feeding stations. The loss of varied woodland and hedgerows is a further negative factor.