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Male greenfinch in flight

Greenfinch

Greenfinches are very common UK countryside and garden birds. Closely associated with man's activities in Europe, Africa and Asia, they remain a popular visitor to garden bird tables. These colourful and sociable little finches have a short conical and powerful bill for breaking open large seeds. In spring, to show off the yellow feathers amongst the otherwise olive-green colouring, the males perform a wonderful dancing display flight, looking more like butterflies. They also sing a simple but musical song.

All you need to know about British birds.

Scientific name: Carduelis chloris

Rank: Species

Common names:

European greenfinch

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Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Greenfinch taxa

Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

The Greenfinch can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Asia, Europe, Mediterranean, Russia, United Kingdom, Wales. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Greenfinch distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

Conservation Status

Least Concern

  1. EX - Extinct
  2. EW
  3. CR - Threatened
  4. EN - Threatened
  5. VU - Threatened
  6. NT
  7. LC - Least concern

Year assessed: 2009

Classified by: IUCN 3.1

About

The European Greenfinch, or just Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris), is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. The genus Carduelis might be split up and in this case, the greenfinches would be separated in their old genus Chloris again.[citation needed]

This bird is widespread throughout Europe, north Africa and south west Asia. It is mainly resident, but some northernmost populations migrate further south. The Greenfinch has also been introduced into both Australia and New Zealand. In Malta it is considered a prestigious song bird which has been trapped for many years. It has been domesticated and many Maltese people breed them.

Chloris is from the Greek Khloros meaning "green" or "yellowish-green".

Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al. (1998) and Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2006) studied the Eurasian Bullfinch phylogeny.

Read more at Wikipedia

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Sounds

Characters we've followed

BBC News about Greenfinch

Video collections

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