Common Linnet
Linaria cannabina
Tornirisken er en finke i ordenen spurvefugle. Fuglen yngler i Europa mod øst til det vestlige Sibirien og Aralsøen og mod syd til Lilleasien, det nordlige Afrika og De Kanariske Øer.
A small, elegant, lively with a fairly long tail and a short grey bill. The male has a rose-red breast and red forehead over a dark cinnamon-brown, unstreaked back; in autumn the red is browner and partly veiled by pale feather fringes. The female is grey-brown, without red, and streaked dark below. The flight is light and almost dancing, undulating, with sudden dives to the ground.
Can be confused with
- Twite — Twite has a darker upperside, heavier streaking, a buff wash to the plumage, no cinnamon back and — the single best mark — an unstreaked throat. In winter its bill is yellow, where Linnet's is grey.
- European Goldfinch — Goldfinch has a broad, vivid yellow bar in a black wing, which Linnet lacks entirely — including immature Goldfinch, which has yet to grow the red face.
Plumage and variation
Juvenile: The immature resembles the female, but is more heavily streaked and shows more cinnamon on the back.
Voice
The call is a soft "tsu-it", and in flight a somewhat metallic "tjit-jit-jit-jit". The song is a highly varied, melodious twitter with the call woven into it.
Behaviour
Keeps to genuinely open country more than the other finches and depends above all on weedy ground, taking the seeds of wild plants on grassland, meadows, stubble and set-aside. Almost always in pairs in the breeding season and in small, loose flocks the rest of the year; several pairs may nest close enough together to form small colonies. It has also settled into suburban gardens, nesting low in evergreen shrubs.
When and where
A Danish breeder across the whole country, put at 52,700-108,700 pairs in 2024 against nearly 121,000 in 2018. Until the mid-1900s Linnet was one of the most numerous breeding birds in the country, then fell steeply with more intensive farming — the same pattern as the rest of western Europe, while the species has not declined in eastern and southern Europe where farming stayed more traditional. On the last decade the sources disagree: the 2019 Red List (LC) says the decline appears to have stabilised, while DCE's newer assessment shows it falling again. Most Danish breeders are migrants wintering in western and south-western Europe; in mild winters a few stay, alongside passage and winter visitors from the north.
Facts
Wingspan
24 cm
Conservation status
ikke truet
Relatives
Family
finches
Fringillidae
Order
passerines
Passeriformes
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