Common chaffinch
Fringilla coelebs
The cheerful song you hear walking in the forest, ending with a fancy flourish, is often from a chaffinch.
| Size | 14.5–16 cm |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 25–28 cm |
| Weight | 18–29 g |
| Diet | Seeds; insects in summer |
| Eggs | 4–5 |
| Where to see it | Forests, parks, gardens; all year |
The male has a pinkish-brown chest and cheeks, a blue-gray head and two white bars on the wing. The female is paler, olive-brown, but she has the same white bars.
"Coelebs" in its Latin name means bachelor. Linnaeus saw in Sweden that in winter the females went south and the males stayed behind, and that's how it got its name.
The chaffinch's song changes from place to place. Young birds learn to sing by listening to the adults, so every region develops its own dialect. Dialects in birds. Isn't that nice?
Its nest is a small, neat cup. It covers the outside with lichen and moss and lines the inside with feathers. Because of this covering, it's almost invisible on tree bark.
To draw it in DrawBird
Follow the sparrow lesson. Make the chest pink-brown and the head blue-gray, and add two white lines on the wing. If you like, put a white stripe on the edge of the tail too.
Drawing lesson: How to draw a sparrow →
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