Common Chaffinch

Fringilla coelebs

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Population: Extremely abundant; roughly 530 million–1.4 billion mature individuals globally (including an estimated 130–240 million breeding pairs in Europe alone)
Habitat: Woodland (especially deciduous and mixed forest with shrub understory), forest edge, parks, gardens, hedgerows, and farmland with scattered trees; favors wooded areas within a temperate summer-temperature range, forming loose flocks in open country outside the breeding season
Fun fact: Linnaeus gave it the species name "coelebs" (Latin for "bachelor"/unmarried) because in parts of its range female chaffinches migrate south for winter while many males stay behind, leaving wintering flocks conspicuously single-sex.
Range: Widespread breeder across almost all of Europe and temperate western/central Asia to the Angara River/Lake Baikal in Siberia, plus resident populations in the Atlas Mountains of NW Africa (subspecies F. c. africana); northern/eastern populations migrate south to winter within and south of this range; introduced and established in New Zealand and locally in South Africa
Diet: Seeds and other plant material gleaned from the ground outside the breeding season; switches to invertebrates (caterpillars, aphids, earwigs, spiders, other small grubs) when breeding and to feed nestlings
Size: 0.145 m
Wingspan: 0.265 m
Lifespan: 15 years

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