Common chaffinch

Fringilla coelebs

A common finch of European woods and gardens; males show a blue-gray head, warm breast, and bold white wing bars.

Key facts

Common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) is an omnivore animal classified as Bird · Passeriformes · Fringillidae.
Primary habitats are forest · urban · grassland, with a range across Palearctic · Afrotropical.
Activity is diurnal, sociality is loose group, and conservation status is LC (Least Concern).
A common finch of European woods and gardens; males show a blue-gray head, warm breast, and bold white wing bars.
Uses deciduous and conifer woodland, edges, parks, gardens, and farm hedgerows, especially tree-rich places for nesting.

Habitat range map

Native rangeOccasional / Transient

Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)

Uses deciduous and conifer woodland, edges, parks, gardens, and farm hedgerows, especially tree-rich places for nesting.

Males have a blue-gray head, reddish underparts, and white wing bars. Females are browner but still show white wing and tail marks.

Breeding males sing from exposed branches. In winter, small flocks often descend to the ground to search for seeds.

Seeds, buds, fruit, and insects are eaten, with chicks receiving many insects and other animal foods.

A neat cup nest of moss and lichens is built in a forked branch. Females incubate, and both adults feed the chicks.

One of Europe's familiar birds, it persists well in mixed landscapes of woodland, farmland, and parks.