Greenfinch

Another fairly easy bird to recognise by its voice is the greenfinch.  They tend to wake up a bit later than blackbirds and thrushes, because their food of seeds, berries and insects is easier to find when daylight is stronger.

The song is a tuneful mix of ping-ping-pings and trills at different speeds but the tell-tale sound is the long fizz, which is sometimes included in the song and sometimes just fizzed on its own.  In this BBC 'tweet of the day' David Attenborough calls it a sneezing call.

tweet of the day - greenfinch

The yellow stripes on the wings and tail show up when it flies.

They like to nest in hedges and woodland edges.  There are usually a few calling in the hedge between the car park and the skateboad park on your way to Filnore Woods.  Come and listen on our Dawn Chorus Walk:  5.00 am on 29th April.

Greenfinch populations have been hit by a disease called trichomonosis but also by changes in farming practices such as autumn sowing of winter wheat, which means no stubble fields to glean, and late summer hedge flailing, which destroys autumn berries.