The British finches are made up of several species of finch which were formerly very popular as cage birds in Great Britain. They are not currently commonplace, but are still kept by a few dedicated fanciers.
The British finches are made up of several species of finch which were formerly very popular as cage birds in Great Britain. They are not currently commonplace, but are still kept by a few dedicated fanciers.
In Victorian times British finches were hugely popular as cage birds throughout the British Isles, [1] often replacing canaries. Due to a lack of protection, thousands of birds were captured for the pet trade every year.
Their popularity is reflected in the well-known British music hall song, "My Old Man (Said Follow the Van)", in the line, "I walked behind wiv me old cock linnet..." referring to the linnet (Carduelis cannabina).
British finches are often associated with mules, a term used by cage bird breeders to refer to hybrids of finch species bred in captivity, such as that of a goldfinch and canary. There are now strict ringing regulations on British finches in places such as the UK, but they are still kept by aviculturists who care for them in much the same way as canaries. The seed mixture in the UK known as British Finch & Mule is their basic diet.
Since the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it has been illegal to capture, attempt to capture or sell any British bird, and only those on Schedule 3 Part 1, may be sold if they are closed ringed and proof can be given that they were bred in captivity. [2]
British finches are quite simply birds in the finch family which to this day live wild in the British Isles.
The species most popular include:
During the Victorian era, it was found that if a British finch, e.g. a goldfinch, was crossed with a canary, the result was an attractive looking, good singing bird. The resulting birds were sterile, but continue to be bred to this day under the name of mules. Many clubs specialise in mules. Also around this time a few people began to experiment crossing British finches. The resulting birds, including siskin × goldfinch and even such beauties as crossbill × Eurasian bullfinch also remain to this day, often winning prizes at prestigious shows. The breeding of such hybrids can, however be notoriously difficult. When writing about hybrid pairs, the cock always comes first, e.g. greenfinch × goldfinch is a greenfinch cock over a goldfinch hen.[ citation needed ]
The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do not migrate. They have a worldwide distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fifty genera. It includes species known as Canaries, siskins, redpolls, serins, grosbeaks and euphonias.
The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family. The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts. The female is more subdued in colouring, but both sexes have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail. The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.
The genus Carduelis is a group of birds in the finch family Fringillidae.
The European greenfinch or simply the greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.
The common linnet is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae. It derives its common name and the scientific name, Linaria, from its fondness for hemp seeds and flax seeds—flax being the English name of the plant from which linen is made.
The Eurasian siskin is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is also called the European siskin, common siskin or just siskin. Other (archaic) names include black-headed goldfinch, barley bird and aberdevine. It is very common throughout Europe and Eurosiberia. It is found in forested areas, both coniferous and mixed woodland where it feeds on seeds of all kinds, especially of alder and conifers.
The pine siskin is a North American bird in the finch family. It is a migratory bird with an extremely sporadic winter range.
The citril finch, also known as the Alpine citril finch, is a small songbird, a member of the true finch family, Fringillidae. For a long time, this cardueline finch was placed in the genus Serinus, but it is apparently very closely related to the European goldfinch.
The desert finch, sometimes called Lichtenstein's desert finch, is a large brown true finch found in southern Eurasia. Its taxonomy is confused, and it has formerly been placed in Fringilla, Bucanetes, Carduelis and Rhodopechys.
The cardueline finches are a subfamily, Carduelinae, one of three subfamilies of the finch family Fringillidae, the others being the Fringillinae and the Euphoniinae. The Hawaiian honeycreepers are now included in this subfamily. Except for the Hawaiian honeycreepers which underwent adaptive radiation in Hawaii and have evolved a broad range of diets, cardueline finches are specialised seed eaters, and unlike most passerine birds, they feed their young mostly on seeds, which are regurgitated. Besides this, they differ from the other finches in some minor details of their skull. They are adept at opening seeds and clinging to stems, unlike other granivorous birds, such as sparrows and buntings, which feed mostly on fallen seeds. Some members of this subfamily are further specialised to feed on a particular type of seed, such as cones in the case of crossbills. Carduelines forage in flocks throughout the year, rather than keeping territories, and males defend their females rather than a territory or nest.
The peat therapy resortMoorbad Gmös in the vicinity of the town of Laakirchen is one of the few bogs in the Alpine foothills of Upper Austria. The bog dates back to the Mindel glaciation and was created by a "dead-ice hole". In 1987 the local authorities of Upper Austria declared the area of 3.4 ha of the Gmöser Moor a natural preserve. A path around the area has since then given the visitor the opportunity of observing rare flora and fauna. In 2002 the spa was chosen as background scenery for the TV-production Schlosshotel Orth.
The hooded siskin is a small passerine bird in the finch family (Fringillidae), native to South America. It belongs to the putative clade of neotropical siskins in the genus Spinus sensu lato.
The genus Rhynchostruthus is a small group of finches in the family Fringillinae. Commonly known as golden-winged grosbeaks, they are attractive, chunky, medium-sized, robust-billed songbirds restricted to the southern Arabian and northern Somalian regions.
The black-capped siskin is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. It is found in Mexico and Guatemala. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forest and heavily degraded former forest.
The yellow-breasted greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the family Fringillidae that is native to the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent.
Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Biosphere Reserve is one of Russia's smallest zapovedniks, sprawling over an area of 5,000 hectares along the left bank of the Oka River in the Serpukhov District of Moskva Oblast. It was established in 1945 as part of the Moscow Nature Reserve and is home to 900 plant species, 130 bird species, and 54 mammal species. A wisent nursery was established in 1948 to populate the region with European bison from the Belovezhskaya Pushcha and Western Caucasus. There is also a small herd of American bison.
The La Palma chaffinch, also known as the Palman chaffinch or, locally in Spanish as the pinzón palmero or pinzón hembra, is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is a subspecies of the common chaffinch that is endemic to La Palma in the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago that forms part of Macaronesia in the North Atlantic Ocean.