Common Chaffinch

Fringilla coelebs

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Fringilline & Cardueline Finches (Fringillidae)

Code 4

CCHA

Code 6

FRICOE

ITIS

Egg Color:

Light pink or gray with red brown markings



Number of Eggs:

3 - 6



Incubation Days:

10 - 18



Egg Incubator:

Female



Nest Location:

In fork of tree or shrub.



Nest Material:

Grasses, lichen, moss, and feathers, held together by spiders' webbing and lined with finer materials.



Migration:

Migratory



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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.

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UnderpartsX

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

UpperpartsX
Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.
BellyX
The ventral part of the bird, or the area between the flanks on each side and the crissum and breast. Flight muscles are located between the belly and the breast.
CrownX
The crown is the top part of the birds head.
NapeX
Also called the hindneck or collar, it is the back of the neck where the head joins the body.
ShoulderX
The short feathers overlying the median secondary coverts on the top of the wing. They are located near the back and can be seen as the “first row” of feathers on the birds wing. They are also called marginal coverts and lesser secondary coverts.
VentX
Birds do not have two separate cavities for excrement and reproduction like humans do. In birds, there is one single entrance/exit that suits both functions called the vent, cloaca or anus.
Parts of a Standing bird X
Head Feathers and Markings X
Parts of a Flying bird X