Description
The Greenfinch is a large stocky finch with a distinctly forked tail. It's about
the size of a Great Tit. The adult male, in summer, is mostly green in colour
except for yellow edges to their outer primary wing feathers and tail feathers.
On looking more closely, the upperparts are more olive-green and the breast and
belly a bright yellow-green, and greyish coverts. During the winter, the male
becomes duller. The adult female and juveniles have grey-brown upperparts, under
parts are tinged with yellow, and with less yellow on the wings and tail than
the male. The juveniles have dark brown streaks above and below. At first glance
they can be mistaken for House Sparrows.
They have a wheezy song, but in flight its call is a repetitive "jup-jup-jup"
and "chichichichit".
Feeding
In the garden Greenfinches will sit for a long time on hanging feeders
containing black sunflower hearts. Otherwise, the Greenfinch's diet is seeds,
buds and berries.
Breeding
Greenfinches nest in colonies in dense shrubs. The nest is made from twigs and
grass, and lined with fine roots and hair, and built by the female. The smooth,
glossy eggs are white to pale beige with blackish markings, and approximately 21
mm by 15 mm. The female incubates the eggs by herself. After the young hatch,
they are fed by both parents.
| Breeding Starts |
Number of Clutches |
Number of Eggs |
Incubation (days) |
Fledge (days) |
| April |
2-3 |
3-8 |
12-14 |
13-16 |
Comments
A Medium BTO Alert exists for the Greenfinch because of the number of nest
failures. Also, Greenfinches are using gardens more during the winter because
hedge flailing, which is increasingly used in preference to more expensive
alternative hedgerow management methods, removes many of the seeds that they
would otherwise eat.
Reproduced with kind permission of
Home
Site Map
Green List