Chaffinch Facts (Fringilla Coelebs)

Size: 14.5cm head to tail

Weight: 18-29g

Wingspan: 24.5 cm – 28.5 cm

Eggs: 2-8 per brood

Food: Insects, fruits, seeds, Autumn/Winter Feeder Mix, Spring/Summer Feeder Mix

Nesting: Made from moss, grass, feathers and lined with wool with decorations of bark

Status: Stable

Song: Loud and varied “pink pink” call

The Chaffinch is one of the most colourful and cheerful UK finches and is the UK’s second most common breeding bird. Its Latin name is Fringilla Coelebs and is part of the Fringillidae family, which is also known as the family of finches. Chaffinches are easily one of the most common and noticeable birds, they have 5,400,000 breeding pairs in the UK so they aren’t believed to be in decline.

Appearance

A male chaffinch has brown back, pink breast and cheeks, and a blue-grey chest. During the summer months a male’s bill turns from brown to grey. A female has a brown back, with grey-brown neck and breast fading into green towards the tail, its bill is always brown like the juveniles. The Chaffinches beauty is often over looked even though the male has more colours in its plumage than any other British garden bird. Both males and females have very distinctive white flashes across their wings and it summer plumage is brighter than its winter plumage. The patterned plumage helps the Chaffinch to blend into the ground when feeding along the ground.

Where they are found and what they like to eat

Chaffinches can be found all year round across the UK in woodlands, parks and gardens. Normally you will hear the Chaffinch before you see them due to their loud and varied “pink pink” call which is a repetitive short trill. Chaffinches like to eat insects, fruits and seeds, they are a common hanging feeder visitor. They don’t tend to feed from bird tables, but they will collect any dropped seed from below a bird table, feeder or under hedges. These birds can become more confident if exposed to humans often, they will even wait for any crumbs if you eat outside regularly. We offer a Spring/Summer Feeder Mix, and Autumn/Winter Feeder Mix for these birds.

Breeding

During the breeding season, the Chaffinches colours become more vivid and the tips of their feathers wear away to reveal their bright plumage. The breeding season starts in April for Chaffinches, they will usually have between 1 - 2 clutches in a season. The females incubate the 2-8 eggs for 10-16 days and then the chicks are fed on a diet of insect larvae by both parents. The chicks fledge after 11-18 days but they only travel a short distance from the area they hatched. Even though the males are more dominant they step aside during the breeding season and leave the females in charge around the breeding territory to find foods like insects and caterpillars.

Nesting and Territory

The nest of a Chaffinch tends to be in a tree or shrub, made from moss, grass and feathers, all bound with spider’s webs in a neat cup shape, and lined with wool and decorated with pieces of bark. The eggs are between 1.5-2cm in size and light blue in colour. There are thought to be 6,200,000 Chaffinch territories in the UK. Once a Chaffinch has claimed a territory the bird will return each year for the breeding season. Chaffinches are very territorial and maintain their territory by singing to warn off other males.

Extra Information

In the 1950s the use of agricultural chemicals and changes in farming lead to a decrease in the population of Chaffinches, but now the population is stable again. If you see a flock of Chaffinches on farmland they tend to be the immigrants from Scandinavia and Western Europe searching for food as British Chaffinches stay in woodlands or hedgerows. The population increases by over 10 million between September and March due to these immigrant birds.

Chaffinches are affected by the disease Trichomonosis, which is deadly to them. To help the Chaffinches you should regularly clean your feeding stations to prevent the spread of the disease.