Chaffinch

chaffinch: see finch.

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chaffinch

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

(credit: H. Schunemann—Bavaria-Verlag)

Songbird (Fringilla coelebs) that breeds in gardens and farmlands of Europe and northern Africa to central Asia (and, by introduction, South Africa). It is the most common finch in western Europe. The 6-in. (15-cm) male has a bluish crown, rust-brown back, greenish rump, and pinkish to rust face and breast; the female is greenish brown. The Canary Islands, or blue, chaffinch (F. teydea) is similar.

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chaffinch

a common European finch, Fringilla coelebs, with black and white wings and, in the male, a reddish body and blue-grey head

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Chaffinch 

(Fringilla coelebs), a songbird of the family Fringillidae. It is about the size of a sparrow (approximately 17 cm long). The male’s plumage is brightly colored (especially in spring): the head is blue-gray, the back is brownish and green, the crop and breast are brownish red, and the wings have large white spots. The coloration of the female is more subdued. The chaffinches common in Europe, Southwest Asia, and North Africa; it is moving toward the east. The chaffinch is one of the most numerous birds in the USSR. It lives in forests and parks of all types, often right near human dwellings. It builds its nest in trees, camouflaging it with moss and lichens. Sometimes it nests twice in a summer. A clutch contains three to six light-blue speckled eggs. The chaffinch feeds on seeds and the green parts of plants, and in the summer it also eats insects and other invertebrates, which it also feeds to its nestlings. The chaffinch has a resonant song and is often kept as a cage bird.