- interesting and beautiful bird squad Passeriformes (Passeriformes) family Finches (Fringillidae). His singing is sometimes mistaken for everyone’s favorite song of the nightingale, surprising at the absence of characteristic trills. Finches give the impression of being unafraid birds. However, this opinion is refuted by the owners and sellers of finches.
What does a finch look like?
Common finch (Fringilla coelebs) is a slender bird the size of a sparrow. Its length is about 14 - 16 cm. Other types may have different sizes. For example, the mountain finch is about 20 cm. Males of the common finch look very elegant during the mating season. They have a bright bluish-gray head and neck, and on the chestnut back the gray tint is almost invisible. To the portrait of a male finch, it is worth adding two bright stripes on each wing; burgundy throat, crop, cheeks and bottom part bodies; a greenish-yellow loin and a black-brown tail. In autumn (after molting), the colors of the plumage fade, acquiring calmer ocher-brown tones. The female finch has a brownish-gray color, darker in the upper part of the body and head. The outfit of the grown chicks is more reminiscent of the coloration of female finch.
finch singing
Ornithologists describe the beautiful song of the finch in a language that only they understand: “few-few-few-la-la-la-di-di-di-vi-chiu.” They call it a loud, rolling trill. The call sounds like “pink-pink”, “rrryu”. This is part of the melody before the ringing, perky trill. Each "verse" usually ends with short sharp notes, i.e. with a flourish. The finch sings (“rumps” or “kicks”) more readily at sunrise and during the day in sunny weather. In cloudy weather, the melodies are not so expressive. A frightened finch may make “hew-hew”, “hee-hee”, or “hew-hew” sounds.
By the end of July, the songs of finches are heard less and less often. The birds sing no longer as loudly, not at all as much as before.
Where do finches live, where do they fly, and what do they eat?
The chaffinch is known not only here, but also in many other European, Asian and American countries. This migratory (in middle lane) the bird is found in forests, forest-steppes, city squares, parks and courtyards planted with trees. She also sings in Moscow parks and forest parks, for example, in Timiryazevsky Park. Finches are absolutely devoid of caution; they often move along the ground in search of food and often find themselves “under the feet” of passers-by or in the claws of animals. The finch's flight is fast and undulating.
Finches nest in pairs, raising 4 to 7 chicks in cup-shaped nests. Nests are built in trees in the forks of branches or on branches (at a height of 2 - 18 m, usually up to 4 m). Both parents feed the chicks by bringing them insects. By mid-June, the first chicks fled in the middle zone; the finches are preparing for the second clutch in July.
Adult birds not only feed on insects, but also enjoy finding recently sown seeds, causing displeasure to people. Finches also eat weed seeds, small bugs, especially weevils, and caterpillars. Less common than ants and bedbugs.
In the middle zone, the common finch flies to the winter warm countries. It rarely remains to spend the winter in the same place; sometimes it wanders towards neighboring, warmer regions. Some finches (from the southern regions of Russia) have adapted to roam, and sometimes stay for the winter in the places where they lived in the summer. Flocks of 40 - 50 birds fly away from September to the end of October. Mainly in Southern Europe. The bird often spends the winter in the Mediterranean and the Caucasus. It flies fast, flight speed is up to 55 km per hour. In the spring (from late March to April), finches appear again in our area.
Finches do not live long. They often die due to their carelessness. Especially when singing, when the finch throws back its head and completely forgets about all the dangers. The only thing that saves him is that the bird sings its songs more often while on a tree branch.
This is how A.N. describes his meeting with the finch. Formozov in the book “Six Days in the Forests”:
Male finches occupied every corner of the forest and now thundered with ringing trills towards the rising sun. One of them - clean, slender with wide white bandages on his wings - sang, jumping along the road, looking for food and did not want to fly off when the boys appeared. When he was finally scared away, another finch, the owner of this corner of the spruce forest, rushed to the fluttering bird, which had landed ten steps from the road. The host finch and the trespassing finch started such a fight that they curled up into a fluffy ball with two splayed tails and four wings. In this form, they fell to the ground with a squeak from the branch where the first skirmish took place. “What, it’s terrible!” - Grisha laughed, watching as the plucked finch guiltily hurried to its plot. He was accompanied by the fervent song of the winner, who expelled the newcomer from where he himself intended to nest and where he was waiting for the female (male finches arrive several days earlier than females).
Finch in a cage
Finches are sold to live in cages and sing beautifully. However, this is not the most suitable bird for captivity. Here is what Konrad Z. Lorenz, an excellent expert on bird behavior, wrote about this:
One of the most debilitating tortures you can endure in your room is the constant fluttering of the wings of a bird struggling out of timidity in its cage. You have purchased a finch - it is cute and sings beautifully. Since you want not only to hear the singing, but also to see the singer himself, then, without hesitation, you remove the linen blanket with which the previous owner, an experienced expert on finches, prudently draped the cage. The bird takes the change for granted and sings as before, but only as long as you don't move. You can only dare to make the slowest and most careful movements, otherwise the distraught bird will frantically throw its body onto the bars of the cage, so that you begin to fear for its head and plumage. At first you think that the captive will get used to it and become tame, but here you are deeply mistaken. So far I have only seen a few finches that have become accustomed to a person walking blithely around the cage itself.
There is one more important “detail” that Konrad Z. Lorenz warns about. This is the nightly disturbance of caged birds. It coincides with the period of migration of migratory birds. The finch can be protected by keeping a tiny electric light on at night, the dim light of which allows it to see the twigs and perch.
The bird storms the bars of its prison not because it wants to fly somewhere. She just wakes up, can’t sleep and starts fluttering around on the perches. She cannot see anything in the dark, so again and again she blindly stumbles into the walls of the cage.
And one more note from this knowledgeable person:
The songs of our various warblers and most finches do not sound too loud in the room - perhaps with the exception of the finch, which can irritate you with the constant repetition of its ringing trill.
Nowadays, finches are rarely kept in a cage. Previously, this vocal bird was often found in captivity, although it was very expensive. Surprisingly, finches live much longer in captivity than in nature. Despite the fact that they often suffer from obesity, eye diseases and blindness. As a rule, these birds are kept one at a time in a cage, with curtains to prevent the finch from injuring itself by being frightened by a person. There are many problems with diet. Hearing a bird but not seeing it is not appealing to all songbird lovers. Most likely, this is the main reason why finches cease to be vocal recluses.
© "Podmoskovye", 2012-2018. Copying texts and photographs from the site podmoskоvje.com is prohibited. All rights reserved.Appearance and behavior. It is approximately the size of a sparrow, but has a more graceful build. Body length 14–18 cm, wingspan 24–29 cm, weight 16–28 g. A very lively and active bird, attracting attention with its bright colors and ringing, tireless song. The flight is fast, light, wavy. It moves along the ground in small jumps and feels as confident here as on the branches of trees, allowing a person to come almost close.
Description. In spring and summer, the male has a bluish-gray top, neck and sides of the neck, and a black forehead. The back is brown or brown, the rump is yellowish-green. The entire underside of the body and sides of the head are wine-pink in color, brighter on the head and chest, pale on the abdomen. The flight feathers are dark brown with narrow yellow edges external fans. There's a big one on the wing White spot and transverse white stripe. The upper tail coverts are greyish. The outer pair of tail feathers is white, with dark spot at the top of the outer fan and with the same dark base at the inner fan. The second pair is dark brown with a large white wedge-shaped spot on the inner web. The remaining tail feathers are blackish-brown. The legs are dark brown, the beak is blackish blue. The iris is light brown.
In the male's fresh autumn feathers, the bright tones are “muted.” The webs of the inner secondary flight feathers have wide light brown edges. The primary flight feathers and the large wing coverts have wide yellowish edges along the edge of the outer webs. The beak is yellowish-brown with a darker tip. The female is brownish-gray, brown on top with an olive tint, with 2 dark longitudinal stripes visible on the crown. The rump of the tail, like that of the male, is yellowish-green. The underparts are brownish-white. The white spots on the wing are smaller than those of the male. Tail feathers like those of males. The beak is dull, brownish, with a darker tip. Legs are brown. Young birds resemble females in color, but have looser plumage. The upper side of their body has brown tint. The rump is slightly greenish. Easily identified (especially in flight) by two bright white stripes on a black background of the wing, longitudinal white “wedges” along the edge of the tail, as well as a rather bright olive-green coloring of the loin and rump. The male is unmistakably different in color.
Voice. The song, in a cheerful major key, consists of several repeated whistles, rising and then falling in tone, with a peculiar sharp “flourish” at the end. It can be conveyed, for example, as: “ fhi-fhi-fhi-tya-tya-tya-twir-vir-virr-ry-chuvrrriu" Other signals - short " rryu» (« ryu-menie"), voiced " kick"(similar to the voice of a great tit); in flight, soft screams can be heard “ tyuv, tyuv».
Distribution, status. In Eurasia it is distributed from British Isles, Atlantic coast and Scandinavia to west bank Baikal, south to Asia Minor and northern Iran. An isolated part of its range is located in North Africa. In addition, it nests on Canary Islands, Azores, Madeira, Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Islands. Common or numerous breeding migratory species of any forest biotopes of the northern and central regions European Russia. In terms of numbers, it clearly dominates among all forest birds. In the middle zone, occasionally single individuals may linger for the winter. It is also common in the south of the region and leads a sedentary lifestyle. Birds of northern populations also winter here.
Lifestyle. In the middle zone, they appear on nesting sites in the second half of March or early April. Inhabit a variety of different types forests, parks and other tree plantations. The nest is located on a tree near the trunk, in a fork or whorl of branches, or on an inclined trunk, usually not high above the ground (from 2 to 5 m), sometimes in the crowns. It looks like a neatly decorated thick-walled bowl made of moss, grass, plant fibers, lined with lichens, spider cocoons, and strips of birch bark. The inner lining consists of wool, sometimes containing some feathers, soft pieces of paper or cotton wool. The clutch contains 4–7 eggs of very varied colors. The background of the shell can be reddish-brown, violet-gray, greenish or bluish, with red-brown spots of varying density; Sometimes the spots can be dark with blurry edges, have the shape of “commas”, curls, or hair-like lines.
The chicks are covered with thick and rather long dirty gray down. Their parents feed them with insects and their larvae, as well as spiders, which are collected on trees, bushes, and less often on the ground. The summer diet of adult birds is dominated by animal food. They also eat plant foods, including bringing soft buds, berries, and seeds to the chicks. In autumn, plant food becomes the main one - these are the seeds of grasses, conifers (finches collect them on the ground), as well as berries, from which they usually choose seeds. In autumn, they disappear from nesting sites during October. Before leaving, finches gather in flocks of hundreds and even thousands of birds. They roam mainly along the edges, fields, thickets of weeds, and often also in the cultural landscape. Often found in mixed flocks with
Not many people imagine what a finch looks like, even though this bird has been known to us since childhood. In its structure it resembles a sparrow, but its temperament, lifestyle and habits are not at all similar to its brother. If you want to see this unpretentious creature, take a walk through dense dense forests, go to city alleys and squares, maybe you will get lucky. We will describe in detail how to spot a bird among other inhabitants of green fauna in this article.
If it weren't for the color, common finch can easily be confused with a sparrow. But unlike its feathered companion, the bird’s plumage acquires brightness and contrast every year. The gray-blue crown smoothly flows into the neck of the same color. The back is a rich burgundy shade and the breast is a mixture of ocher and red brick. The beginning of the tail is indicated by a greenish-brown color, the continuation is indicated by gray feathers with a yellow border. The underparts as a whole have white plumage. The bird's wings, like its forehead, are black, but have two prominent white stripes.
The body length of the finch reaches 20 cm, and it weighs only 25-30g. The plumage of females and males has pronounced differences. Males, especially during breeding, become brighter, the neck becomes blue or dark blue. The chest, cheeks and throat of the bird are painted in burgundy tones. The female's feathers are not so prominent, so distinguishing them from the opposite sex is not difficult.
How the finch lives and where it lives
Finches live in European forests, North Africa, and also in Siberia, on Far East and other regions of Russia. Birds choose coniferous or deciduous trees for their home. Their nests can be found in cool forests, mainly where trees are densely packed next to each other. Birds do not like humid climates, areas near swamps and river branches. In urban environments, they can often be seen in green areas, squares, gardens and even in cemeteries.
Finches are considered to be migratory birds, but part of the flock may remain at home for the winter. Adult individuals that decide to go south flock into groups of fifty or one hundred birds and fly to neighboring regions: to the south of Russia, the shores of the Black Sea or Mediterranean Sea. During the flight, the finch can accelerate up to 50 kilometers in one hour, so the flight takes quite a short time.
Interesting fact: finches that stay at home for the winter gather in small flocks and settle in fields and meadows. Finches and sparrows begin to flock to them, which they happily accept.
Unusual habits of birds
Finches fly away for the winter with the first onset of frost, and return with the first warmth of spring. From the word “chill” the name of these birds appeared. In the old days there were two beliefs. First: if you meet a bird in March, then a thaw will come. And second: if you heard the singer in the fall, expect lower temperatures and frosts.
Finches do not live long, about 12 years. While singing, they throw their heads back so much that they forget about the danger that surrounds them, and as a result they die. The only thing that saves the bird is that it sings its songs while sitting on a high tree branch.
Songs of the finch
The common finch is a beautiful bird that begins its trills in the spring and sings until summer. By the beginning of August, the finch's voice is heard less and less often. His song begins with a thin whistle and continues with a ringing, rolling trill. One or two beats sound, persistently repeated over and over again, and end with a characteristic sharp note.
Those who like to watch finches have long learned to distinguish between the knees. The birds sing for about five seconds, then fall silent for a moment and repeat it all over again.
With its songs, the common, or as it is also called - slender, finch is able to transmit certain signals to its fellows. Sounds can indicate fear, anxiety, aggression, attract a female, and also give a command to take off. Previously, decorative finches with an excellent voice could often be found in apartments, but today the bird is rarely bred at home.
What does a finch eat?
The bird has a hard beak, dense facial muscles and a unique arch upper sky. Thanks to this structure, the finch calmly bites through various insect shells and shells.
The finch's diet is dominated by:
- seeds;
- leaves, buds and tree bark;
- berries;
- flowers;
- various caterpillars, spiders, ants and bugs.
Plowmen and landowners swear at petty pranksters, but in fact they are more accurately called helpers. Birds are very fond of weed seeds, and thus save crops from harmful plants. Finches also destroy weevils, caterpillars and other pests on agricultural land.
How does a singer behave in captivity?
As mentioned above, finches used to be often kept in home apartments. Now it's very rare, because the price for a singer is quite high. Besides, he can for a long time do not show your talent - once in a cage, the bird initially gets used to it and adapts to the situation. Ornithologists have proven that birds live much shorter in an aviary than in nature.
There are several nuances to keeping finches captive. If the pet begins to sing, then trills will sound in the presence of people as long as they stand still. As soon as a person moves, the bird will immediately become frightened, starting to fight against the walls of the enclosure. At such moments he can simply kill himself. To prevent tragic situations, the cage must be covered with dense material.
It happens that a finch wakes up at night, jumps around the cage, but since it doesn’t see well in the dark, it can miss and hit itself. Therefore in dark time You need to turn on a small lamp every day. Such actions will help the bird navigate and adapt to new conditions.
Nutrition songbird in captivity is also quite peculiar. She prefers only fresh bugs and plants. Preparing a diet causes a lot of trouble for owners. In addition, the finch often suffers from overeating and eye disease. Therefore, there are fewer people wanting to have one at home every year.
Puberty and reproduction
Males and females after wintering begin to appear in their homeland from mid-March to mid-April. Having acclimatized, they begin nesting. Most often, birds choose the crowns of trees or the bases of branches as a place for their home. They create a nest that is as invisible as possible to predators and people. Construction materials Twigs, grass, moss, dry leaves, and lichens are used. The bottom is covered with wool and feathers gathered around. To prevent the structure from falling apart, the finches fasten it together with threads of cobwebs.
The male finch becomes frisky and fussy during the period of maturation and nesting. He jumps from branch to branch, gets into fights and sings loudly. At such moments, the male looks disheveled: he pulls up his feathers and retracts his neck. The female finch, which has attracted the attention of her suitor, sits down next to her, raises her tail, throws back her head and begins to quietly sing “zi-zi-zi.” This way she makes it clear that the chosen partner is not indifferent to her.
Chaffinch chicks
At one time, a female finch lays four to seven eggs. They do not exceed 2 centimeters in size and have a blue-green tint with pink splashes. Within 11-13 days future mom hatches the offspring, while the future dad feeds her. It’s true that he doesn’t do this often; he mostly sings and gets into fights with neighbors who fly into the nesting area. In one season, a female can lay eggs twice.
Newborn chicks are fluffy and soft. The body is covered with fluff gray, only the forehead and chest remain bald. But on the head there are sticking out different sides feathers that resemble a funny cap. After two weeks, the babies fledge and become like their mother. As a rule, both parents feed them. They bring insects, larvae, mosquitoes, but most diet consists of caterpillars. After a month, the small finches switch to plant foods, become independent and leave their parental nests.
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The finch is the most numerous of the songbirds living in Europe. As ornithologists sometimes joke, this is the name given to scientists who study the habits of birds - there are more finches in Europe than the population of Europe itself, and more seriously, the number of finches ranges from 80 to one hundred million pairs. At the same time, it is interesting that finches in wildlife They do not live more than two years, although in captivity a finch’s life expectancy of 10 years is not the limit.
Of all the species of songbirds, the finch is the most studied by scientists, this is evidenced by the fact that they counted more than 450 varieties of finches and identified more than 10 “conversational” signals in the finch song, with the help of which the birds communicate with each other.
These include signals of courtship, begging, and warnings to an intruder. The chaffinch's song is usually short, up to 3 seconds, and is more like a dialogue. The female finch is less sociable than the male, sings less often, and her song is not very diverse.
Bird finch photo and description
What does a finch bird look like? easy to remember from the photo. Let's try to describe the finch in words. First of all, the size, the finch is no larger than a sparrow. The color of the plumage makes it easy to distinguish a male finch from a female. Like other songbirds, the female's coloration is duller.
The male finch looks like this photo the back is brown with a green tint, the crop, wings, tail and chest are brown with redness, the head is bluish-gray, there are white spots or stripes on the wings.
The finch's favorite habitats are not dense mixed forests, shelterbelts, parks and gardens. The finch avoids remote places, but it can often be found near human habitation, in the garden, as well as in thickets of bushes along rivers and lakes. Apparently, this way of living is associated with food production.
The finch feeds on seeds of trees, grasses, grains, and does not disdain green leaves plants, and in the summer it cleans gardens and vegetable gardens from insect pests with which it feeds the chicks.
Is the finch a migratory bird?
Finch migrant
or not is a rhetorical question. It all depends on the area where he lives. In central Europe and the Caucasus it remains for the winter; from Europe the finch flies to winter in the Mediterranean. From us to the Caucasus and the south of Kazakhstan from the Urals and Siberia to Central Asia.
Birds return from wintering in early April, and by early June, the chicks in the finches family are already growing up and flying out of the nests. The second addition to the finch family usually appears in July, and from the end of September the birds begin leaving for the winter.
They look very impressive bird finch in winter against the backdrop of snow-covered trees, it would seem that they do not need support, but this is a deceptive opinion. Like any other bird, it is difficult for the finch to find food and humans must help it with this.
Keeping a finch at home.
Finch at home a desirable bird, since ancient times in Rus' the finch was considered a talisman hearth and home And family happiness, but problematic. The finch bird does not tolerate closed spaces at all; even in nature, unlike, for example, a nightingale or a siskin, it does not live in thickets. At the same time, the finch is extremely pugnacious by nature; two males never get along in the same cage.
Being placed in a cage, the finch hits the bars so hard, trying to free itself, that it breaks into blood. That's why keep finches only outside in a free enclosure and preferably built around a living tree.
Of course, you can try keeping one finch at home in a spacious cage, just to start, cover the cage with a cloth, it will calm the bird and it will stop beating.
Growing finch at home It’s still possible and brings a lot of pleasure to the owners. In terms of the beauty of their singing, finches are close to, although I, for example, like them better in terms of the beauty of their singing. Special singing tournaments with prizes are often held among finches.
Bird finch – 12 photos + video “How the finch sings”
For the little ones - the Georgian fairy tale of the king and the finch.
Finch– one of the most common forest birds in Europe. This is a rather unpretentious creature that can be found not only in forests. City parks and gardens are also their home.
Features and habitat of the finch
finch bird represents the finch family. By finch description- a small bird about the size of a bird, sometimes reaches up to 20 cm in length, and weighs only about 30 g. However, it differs significantly from other birds in that it has very bright plumage.
Males, especially during the mating season, look very defiant. Their neck and head are blue or dark blue. The chest, cheeks and throat are dark red or burgundy, the forehead and tail are black.
Two brightly colored stripes on each wing, and a green tail make the owner’s appearance unforgettable. After molting in the autumn, the color scheme of the bird's plumage becomes much more faded and brown tones begin to predominate.
The female finch has a more muted color, with gray-green shades predominating in its color. Chicks are teenagers more color scheme females There are many subspecies of finches; they differ among themselves in size, beak, color and other features. In some areas they occupy a leading place in number among other small birds.
Finches are considered migratory birds, although some representatives adapt and remain for the winter in their favorite territory. European part Russia, Siberia, the Caucasus are their summer residence.
In September and October, birds gather in groups of approximately 50 to 100 individuals and go to Central Europe for the winter. North Africa, Asia Minor, Kazakhstan and Crimea.
The photo shows a female finch
Overwinter the finch maybe in neighboring regions located further south. Birds fly to the South quickly, about 55 km/hour. Along the way, the flock may stop in regions rich in food for several days.
It can be said with firm confidence that, depending on the region, finches are sedentary, nomadic and migratory birds. IN winter time finches form flocks and live mainly on open area. As a rule, these are meadows and fields. Finches and sparrows are often members of their flock.
When the finches arrive spring is just beginning and they can be observed in forests, groves, forest plantations and city parks. Favorite habitats are sparse spruce forests, mixed forests and light forests. In most cases they do not nest, since they usually look for food on the surface of the ground. Mostly they fly to the places where they were last summer.
The origin of the name of the bird is from the word freeze, chill. After all, they arrive at the very beginning of spring and fly away at the beginning of cold weather. There is one old Russian saying that if you hear the song of a finch, it means frost and cold, but it means warmth. It is noteworthy that Latin name feathered has the same root as the word cold. Our ancestors also believed that the finch is the herald of spring.
Character and lifestyle of the finch
Common finch flies very quickly, and prefers to jump rather than walk on the surface of the earth. Songs of the finch ringing, loud and highly variable individually, very similar to the trills of a lark, but have their own characteristics.
The duration of the chant is no more than three seconds, after a short pause it is repeated. Young animals perform simpler melodies, learn from adults and acquire skill and virtuosity with age.
By the way, each region has its own individual “dialect”, sounds made by a finch vary depending on where you live. The bird's repertoire can include up to 10 songs, which she performs in turn.
Before the rain, birds sing a peculiar trill “ryu-ryu-ryu”, so these birds can predict the weather. If the finch sings finch voice can be heard from the moment of arrival until mid-summer. In autumn, finches sing less often and “in a low voice.” At home finch singing starts in January.
Nowadays to hear finch voice, many strive to achieve it at home. However, this is not the most The best decision. The finch does not really like to sing in a cage, it is constantly nervous, tries to free itself, and it may develop eye problems and obesity. In addition, choosing a diet for this bird is quite difficult.
Finch nutrition
The finch feeds on plant foods or insects. The bird's palate, strong beak and strong facial muscles make it easy to break both beetle shells and hard seeds.
Main diet: weed seeds and cones, buds and leaves, flowers, berries and all kinds of insects. Despite the fact that workers Agriculture complain that birds destroy the seeds of sown plants, about the chaffinch it is safe to say that it brings significant benefits to the fields and forest plantations.
Reproduction and lifespan of the finch
From warm lands male and female finches in spring They arrive in separate flocks. Males arrive earlier and stay away from their future mates. Then the males begin to sing loudly, these sounds resemble the chirping of chicks. These sounds lure females into their territory.
Mating season in finches it begins in March. Before finding a mate, males occupy nesting areas, which have their own boundaries and different areas.
Often these are places where they nested last year. Competitors of the same species are immediately expelled from this territory. Fights between first-year males and older males over the outskirts of the old men’s territories are especially frequent.
During the mating season, males finch look like real bullies. They fuss a lot, fight among themselves and sing, often interrupting the song. At this moment he pulls himself up and the feathers on his head are pressed.
A nearby female flies up to the male, sits down next to him, bends her legs, raises her wings and tail a little, throws her head up and begins to quietly squeak “zi-zi-zi.” Such acquaintance can occur both on the ground and in tree branches.
A month later, the finches begin building their home. This task is entrusted to the female, the male’s concern is help. It has been estimated that when building a nest, the female descends to the ground at least 1,300 times in search of suitable materials. finch nest can be found on almost any tree and at any height. Most often - about 4 m and in the forks of branches.
In a week you get something unique architectural structure– a bowl with a diameter of up to one meter. It contains thin twigs, moss, branches, grass and roots. All this is held together using a web.
Its walls are thick and durable and can reach 25mm. The outer walls are moss, lichen and birch bark. The inside of the nest is lined with various feathers; down and wool are also used. The result is a house that is perfectly camouflaged and hardly noticeable.
Pictured is a chick finch
The clutch contains 3-6 eggs, greenish in color with red dots. While the female hatches the chicks, the male brings her food and carefully looks after her. After about two weeks, babies are born with red skin and dark down on the back and head.
They are completely helpless and both parents lovingly feed them directly into their beaks, putting them in. During this period, it is absolutely forbidden to disturb. If a person approaches the nest, children or eggs, adult birds may leave it.
In mid-June, the chicks fly out of the nest, but their parents help them for another half a month. The second brood of finches appears in mid-late summer. There are fewer eggs in the second clutch. The finch lives not for long, although in captivity its lifespan can reach up to 12 years.
They die mostly carelessly, since they often look for food on the ground and can be trampled by people or caught by predators. The finch feather is popularly considered a symbol of family happiness and prosperity.
