Overview

Linnet: Small finch, upperparts are chestnut-brown and underparts are white with buff-brown flanks. Head is grey, throat is buff-white, forehead and breast are red. Flight feathers have white edges. Bill is grey, legs and feet are pink-brown. Undulating flight, alternates flapping with short glides.

Linnet: Resident in the UK and Ireland except for highland areas. Some birds migrate to France and Spain while birds from northern Europe arrive for the winter. Nests in scrub, bushes, hedgerows, gardens and gorse-covered commons. Also found in coastal marshes, stubble fields, heaths and farmland.

Jean Roche Sound

Linnet 6

• Title: Linnet 6
• Description: Song is warbled and wheezy notes.
• Recordist: Jean Roche
• Date Imported: "February 7, 2011"
• Location: uk

Linnet 3

• Title: Linnet 3
• Description: Typical song.
• Recordist: Jean Roche
• Date Imported: "February 7, 2011"
• Location: uk

Linnet 5

• Title: Linnet 5
• Description: Various calls.
• Recordist: Jean Roche
• Date Imported: "February 7, 2011"
• Location: uk

Linnet 8

• Title: Linnet 8
• Description: Contact calls.
• Recordist: Jean Roche
• Date Imported: "February 7, 2011"
• Location: uk

Linnet 7

• Title: Linnet 7
• Description: Calls of a small flock.
• Recordist: Jean Roche
• Date Imported: "February 7, 2011"
• Location: uk

Voice Text

"chi-chi-chi"

• The Linnet was popular as a caged bird in the 19th century owing to its pleasant song.
• Its scientific name comes from its liking of hemp, and its English name from its appetite for flax seeds, the plant linen is made from.
• Modern farming practices and herbicides have contributed to a dramatic decline since the 1970s.
• A group of finches has many collective nouns, including a "charm", "company", and "trembling" of finches.

• Crossbill
• Common Redpoll
• Lesser Redpoll
• Twite
• Serin
• Siskin
• Common Rosefinch
• Scottish Crossbill

Finches (Fringillidae)

ORDER

Also known as perching birds, the order PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez) is composed of one hundred and eighteen families of birds, among which are the insectivorous warblers and the seed-eating finches.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

The Fringillidae (pronounced frin-JIHL-lih-dee) is a widespread bird family found on most continents and includes two hundred and seven species of finches in thirty-nine genera (IOC World Bird List, version 2.3).

EUROPE

Thirty-four species of finches in thirteen genera have occurred in Europe. These include familiar feeder visitors such as goldfinches and siskins, the crossbills, and the massive-billed Hawfinch.

KNOWN FOR

Finches are known for their seed-eating behaviour and cheery songs; characteristics that facilitated and popularized the domestication of the Island Canary. Finches such as White-winged Crossbills are also known for their “irruptive" migrations in search of food sources that can make them locally common one winter and absent the next.

PHYSICAL

Finches are primarily small birds with stout, short bills adapted to cracking open seeds and have short legs for a mostly arboreal lifestyle. Many species also have slightly forked tails and long wings useful for the large amount of flying needed to find seeding plants.

COLORATION

European finches are generally plumaged in shades of red, yellow, brown, grey, and dull green. Male finches are more brightly coloured than females; the pinkish-red, grey, black, and white plumage of male Bullfinches being especially striking.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

Finches in Europe occupy forest and non-forest habitats, coniferous forests being favoured by some species. The non-forest niche is filled by a variety of species including goldfinches, the Linnet, Twite, and the Trumpeter Finch.

MIGRATION

Most finches are adapted to cold weather and only migrate when seed crops on their breeding grounds become scarce. An exception to this is the Common Rosefinch which migrates from north-eastern Europe to India for the winter.

HABITS

Members of the finch family are very social birds typically found in flocks outside of the breeding season. Most finches forage for seeds in trees and bushes although a few species take some insects and forage on the ground.

CONSERVATION

While finches in Europe are doing quite well, most members of this family native to the Hawaiian Islands are highly endangered with many having already gone extinct and others in decline because of their high susceptibility to introduced diseases such as avian malaria and changes to the native forests they inhabit.

INTERESTING FACTS

The aptly named crossbills have curious curved bills with crossed tips. Although it looks more like a bill deformity than a useful tool, this specialized bill shape is perfect for extracting seeds from pine cones.

Artist

Yury Lisyak