European Greenfinch
Birds in Focus...

(Carduelis chloris) Europe

The Greenfinch is a large stocky finch with a distinctly forked tail. It’s about the size of a Great Tit. The adult male, in summer, is mostly green in colour except for yellow edges to their outer primary wing feathers and tail feathers

On looking more closely, the upperparts are more olive-green and the breast and belly a bright yellow-green, and greyish coverts. During the winter, the male becomes duller.

The adult female and juveniles have grey-brown upperparts, underparts are tinged with yellow, and with less yellow on the wings and tail than the male. The juveniles have dark brown streaks above and below. At first glance they can bemistaken for House Sparrows .

They have a wheezy song, but in flight its call is a repetitive “jup-jup-jup” and “chichichichit”.

In the garden Greenfinches will sit for a long time on hanging feeders containing black sunflower hearts. Otherwise, the Greenfinch’s diet is seeds, buds and berries. Greenfinches nest in colonies in dense shrubs. The nest is made from twigs and grass, and lined with fine roots and hair, and built by the female.

The smooth, glossy eggs are white to pale beige with blackish markings, and approximately 21 mm by 15 mm. The female incubates the eggs by herself. After the young hatch, they are fed by both parents.