Chaffinch

An attractive finch with conspicuous white shoulder, wingbar and outer tail feathers. The adult male has a black forehead, blue-grey crown and nape, a rich pinkish-brown face and underparts fading to white on the belly and a reddish brown back and olive rump. The female is soft brownish grey, with a greenish rump and prominent white wingbars on a darker wing. The common call note is a metallic 'chink' and the male’s song is a bright 'chip, chip, chip tell, tell, tell cherry-erry-erry tissi cheweeo'. The song varies in different regions.

Chaffinch feed mainly on the ground and eat a mix of seeds (cereals and brassicas, weeds and pine), invertebrates such as spiders, caterpillars, moths, flies and aphids, and small fruits of native trees and shrubs.

Breeding is between September and late January. A neat well camouflaged nest of grasses and lichens lined with hair, feathers and wool is built in a tree fork. A clutch of 3–6 greyish blue eggs with purplish blotches is incubated by the female for 11–15 days. The eggs hatch over 1–3 days and are brooded by the female. After the fledgling period of 10–16 days they continue to be fed by both parents for about three weeks.

Find out more about the chaffinch at New Zealand Birds Online.

Photography (male chaffinch) by: Dr Kerry Rodgers ©

References: Heather, B.D.; Robertson, H.A. 2000 The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Auckland, Viking. Moon, G The Reed Field Guide to New Zealand Birds.