General
Common Chaffinch: Medium-sized, buff finch. Crown and nape are blue-gray; belly and vent are white. Wings are dark with white shoulder patches and single white bars. Female has uniformly gray-brown upperparts and yellow-gray underparts.
Range and Habitat
Common Chaffinch: Eurasian species; widely scattered as far as North Africa, Western Asia, southern Russia, and western Siberia. Accidental during migration in the Maritimes and in Massachusetts and Maine; found almost anywhere with scattered shrubs and trees, orchards, farmlands, parks, gardens, and suburbs.
Breeding and Nesting
Common Chaffinch: Three to six light pink or gray eggs with red brown markings are laid in a nest made of grass, lichens, moss, rootlets, and feathers, held together by spider webs, and lined with finer materials. Incubation ranges from 10 to 18 days and is carried out by the female.
Foraging and Feeding
Common Chaffinch: Eats mainly seeds and insects; forages in trees and bushes.
Vocalization
Common Chaffinch: Song is a bold, warbling "fyeet, fyeet, lya-lya-vee, chee-yew-keak." Call is "pink-pink"; has flight call of "cheup."
Similar Species
Common Chaffinch: Brambling has white rump and black head and back.