Eurasian greenfinch

Description

With a body length of 14 to 16 cm, the Eurasian greenfinch is about as large as the house sparrow. The body, head and beak are strikingly strong. The beak is light horn-coloured. The outer plumes of the primaries are yellow, resulting in a greenish-yellow wing patch. When the wing is folded, the outer edge is also distinctly yellow. The parts of the tail feathers close to the body are also yellow.

The male is yellow-green on the underparts and grey-green on the upperparts. The rump is lighter green. The cheeks, neck, nape and greater coverts are grey, the flanks are light grey. On the wings there is a grey wing patch in the area of the secondaries. The tips of the wings and tail feathers are dark. The throat is dirty yellow. The legs are flesh coloured.

The female is overall much duller and less yellow in colour than the male. The entire body plumage is faintly streaked longitudinally. Her upperparts and head are brownish, the underpart of the rump is faintly greenish-grey. The throat is pale, the cheeks brown.

The juvenile plumage is distinctly lighter, the underpart of the body whitish with light grey longitudinal stripes, the upper side washed-out grey-brown and faintly longitudinally striped. The yellow colouring of the wing is very indistinct. There is a pale grey area around the eye. The greater coverts have broad, beige-coloured terminal seams. In females and juveniles the legs are dark sandy. The iris is dark in all.

The Eurasian greenfinch is originally a resident of sparse tree stands, clearings or open areas bordering forest edges, as well as riverbanks and copses. Today, it mainly inhabits a wide variety of human settlements: From individual farms and hamlets with scattered orchards to large city centres with parks or cemeteries, provided there are at least individual trees, rows of trees or greened house facades.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grünfink). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 03 November 2021