Can You Tell Me Something About Finches?

Finches are small and usually colourful birds that live by eating seeds. The live in habitats that are spread all over the world except for the islands of the Pacific Ocean the Antarctic, Australia, most of southern Asia and Madagascar. They live in a diverse range of places, including town gardens, woodlands, open country, conifer forests and orchards.

Finches have a wide range of bill shapes and plumage patterns. Their bills may look different but they all have the same design features – they are ideal tools for extracting or cracking or shelling different types of seed. The plumage patterns and colours vary within the finch family and also between the sexes of the same species. The male chaffinch, for example, has a spring plumage consisting of a pale bluish grey cap, a rich brown back and pinkish underparts with boldly marked black and white wings. The female has a similar pattern, but she is coloured in subdued tones of olive and grey brown.