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The European goldfinch/Carduelis carduelis

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The goldfinch has a red face and a black-and-white head. The back and flanks are buff or chestnut brown. The black wings have a broad yellow bar. The tail is black and the rump is white. The female is very similar to the male but has a slightly smaller red area on the face.

The song is a pleasant silvery twittering. The call is a melodic tickeLIT, and the song is a pleasant tinkling medley of trills and twitters, but always including the trisyllabic call phrase or a teLLIT-teLLIT-teLLIT.

The nest is neat and compact and is generally located several meters above the ground, hidden by leaves in the twigs at the end of a swaying branch.


Goldfinches are commonly kept and bred in captivity around the world because of their distinctive appearance and pleasant song.