Birds of Ireland: Chaffinch

Chaffinch (Rí rua / Fringilla coelebs)

Chaffinch (Rí rua / Fringilla coelebs)

Chaffinches are around 14-16cm in length with a wingspan of 26cm. They live here all year around and are typically found in woodland, farmland, and gardens across the whole country.

These birds are robin-sized.

The males have a rosy orange-pink face, breast, and belly; with a metallic blue-grey nape; a brown back; and an olive-green rump. Their wings are dark brown with two white wing bars; and they have white outer tail feathers on a long dark tail. Adult chaffinches and birds with their first year plumage are duller in non-breeding plumage though not as dull as the females.

Female chaffinches have the same patterning as the males but are drab, pale grey-brown. 

In flight, chaffinches' double white wing bar and white outer tail feathers are very obvious, and their white underwing section can be seen. 

Their calls include a loud buzz-twink-twink-twink; and in flight it is a low, weak weiou. A chaffinch's song lasts about three seconds and is repeated; it starts with buzzing notes, slows, descends into a jumble, and finally a flourish. 

Chaffinch (Rí rua / Fringilla coelebs)

Tip of the week: When identifying a bird, judging its shape is very important. The essential parts of a bird to look at in relation to this are the beak, legs, wings, and tail.

Is the beak thin like a blue tit's, or thick like a greenfinch's?

Are the legs short or long, thin, or fat?

Are the wings long and narrow like a swift, or broad and short like a pheasant's?

Is the tail relatively long like a magpie's or short like a blue tit's?

It is also very useful to note the shape of the end of a bird's tail — is it square, rounded, wedged, notched, or forked? As with judging size, a bird's shape can vary dramatically depending on whether its feathers are raised or flat against the body. Moult can also make long-tailed birds look short-tailed. 

Birds of Ireland: A field guide By Jim Wilson, with photographs by Mark Carmody