Birdpass
English
Common Linnet

Common Linnet

Linaria cannabina

Identify the Common Linnet by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

  • Download on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play

The Common Linnet is a slim, long-tailed finch of open country across Europe, the western Palearctic and North Africa. Summer males have a crimson forehead and breast on a grey head, while females and young are brown and streaked. It eats small seeds – its names come from its fondness for flax and hemp seeds – and sings a lively song of fast trills and twitters. It has declined in parts of Europe with intensive agriculture.

Did you know?

  • Its English and scientific names come from its fondness for flax and hemp seeds.
  • It was once a popular cage bird for its lively song.

Voice

Song
Call
Flight call

About the species

Identification

A small finch. The breeding male has a bright red breast and a red forehead patch on a grey head, a chestnut back, a pale belly and a white wing stripe; all plumages show white edges to the tail. The female is grey-brown with a pale belly and also has a white wing stripe; young birds resemble the female but are more streaked. Told from redpolls by the lack of a black chin, and from Twite by the male's red and the grey bill. The song is a cheerful warble from a high perch; the call a sharp “tet-tet”.

Family

Fringillidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, grey, red, white

About the habitat

Open landscapes with scattered shrubs and hedges – farmland, field margins, heathland, coastal dunes, clear-cuts and gardens.

Diet

Mainly small seeds taken on the ground and in low vegetation, especially from weeds such as knotgrass, docks, crucifers, chickweed, dandelion and thistles; chicks are also fed seeds, with some insects.

Behaviour

Feeds on the ground and in low weedy vegetation, often in flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes with other finches. Males sing a fast, musical song from bushes, wires and fences. It nests low in dense shrubs such as juniper or gorse, laying four to seven eggs. Many populations are partly migratory, often gathering on coasts in winter.

Sources

Photo: Joe Pell, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carduelis cannabina -England -male-8.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC730819, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/730819

Sound: Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bird_Call_-_Muro,_Spain_2022-04-18_(03).mp3

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC918551, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/918551

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_linnet

See also