Common Chaffinch

Can be confused withSource

• Brambling — Brambling has an orange (not pink) breast and shoulder and a white rump seen in flight; often in mixed flocks in winter.
• House Sparrow — House Sparrow lacks the white wingbars and white outer tail and has a heavier, conical bill.

Plumage and variationSource

Male and female: Clear sexual difference: the male has a blue-grey crown and nape, a pink-brown face and breast and a brown mantle; the female is dull olive-brown and paler below, but shows the same white wingbars and white outer tail feathers — hers narrower and more cream-coloured.

Summer and winter: The male is muted in winter, when pale feather fringes veil the colours; the fringes wear away through the winter so he is brightest in the breeding season. The bill is pale greyish in winter and blue-grey with a dark tip in breeding plumage.

Juvenile: The juvenile resembles the female — dull and nondescript, but with the same white markings in wing and tail.

VoiceSource

The song is a firm, accelerating phrase that runs down the scale and ends in a jaunty flourish. The call is a clear, metallic "pink pink", and in spring a monotonous, repeated "huit" — the so-called rain call.

BehaviourSource

Feeds on the ground in short hops — typically under the feeder picking up spillage rather than clinging to it. The flight is bounding and undulating like other finches, with the white wingbars and tail sides flashing conspicuously. Outside the breeding season it is seen in flocks, often segregated by sex.

When and whereSource

One of Denmark's most numerous breeding birds, found anywhere there are trees: broadleaf and conifer woodland, hedgerows, parks and gardens. Most Danish birds are resident — males especially overwinter, while many females and young birds move to south-western Europe. Large numbers from further north pass through or winter here; migration is best seen in eastern Denmark in March–April and September–October.

Facts

RelativesSource