Eurasian Chaffinch

The Eurasian, or common, chaffinch is a common and widespread small finch. The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts, while the female is more subdued, but both have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail; the adult male of the nominate has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle. The juvenile resembles the female. It breeds in much of Europe and across the Palearctic to Siberia (Wikipedia, general species account).

The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree, with typically four or five eggs hatching in about 13 days, and the chicks fledge in around 14 days but are fed by both adults for several weeks afterwards. Outside the breeding season chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground; in the breeding season they forage in trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, to feed their young. They use between two and eight calls (Wikipedia, general species account).