Vorstman's Guideto the birds of Europe

All species › Passerines › Finches

Finches | Fringillidae

Vinkachtigen | Fringílidos

The conical bill is the mark of the family: seed is not swallowed but husked, held in a groove in the palate while the lower mandible slides the coat off. The heavier the bill, the harder the kernel it can deal with, so its shape tells from species to species what the bird depends on. Outside the breeding season they range in flocks over seed-rich fields, woods and shores, with a bounding flight and persistent contact calls that identify them at a distance. Unlike most songbirds, many species feed their young not on insects but on regurgitated seed, carried in a pouch of the gullet.

Native species 33 species

Species that occur here by nature: breeding birds, winter visitors and passage migrants. They are arranged by genus, in the sequence of the list.

Fringilla 8 species

Coccothraustes 1 species

Carpodacus 3 species

Pinicola 1 species

Pyrrhula 2 species

Rhodopechys 1 species

Bucanetes 1 species

Rhodospiza 1 species

Chloris 1 species

Linaria 2 species

Acanthis 1 species

Loxia 4 species

Carduelis 3 species

Serinus 3 species

Spinus 1 species