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European Serin

European Serin

Serinus serinus

Identify the European Serin by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The European Serin is the smallest European finch, a tiny, streaky, short-tailed bird with a bright yellow rump. Males have a yellow face, breast and wing bars. Its buzzing, jingling song is a familiar sound around the Mediterranean. It breeds across southern and central Europe and North Africa and has spread north over the past two centuries; northern birds move south in winter.

Did you know?

  • It is the smallest finch in its family in Europe.
  • Its range has spread north across Europe since the 1800s.

Voice

Song
Call
Flight call

About the species

Identification

A small, yellowish finch with a short, stubby bill. It has a yellow rump and dark wings; the male is bright yellow and dark-streaked, while females and young are duller and more streaked. It lacks the bold yellow wing bars and black cap of Siskin and is much smaller than Greenfinch. Its high, jingling song resembles a Greenfinch's trill but is faster and sharper.

Family

Fringillidae

Size

Tiny (goldcrest)

Colours

yellow, brown, green, black

About the habitat

Semi-open landscapes with scattered trees, especially conifers – parks, gardens, cemeteries, orchards, vineyards and woodland edges.

Diet

Mainly small seeds of weeds and trees, as well as buds; insects in the breeding season.

Behaviour

An active, conspicuous finch that sings a high, rapid, jingling song from treetops or wires, often in a fluttering song flight. It builds a compact nest in conifers, fruit or citrus trees; the female incubates 3–5 eggs for about 12 days, and the young fledge about two weeks later. It may raise two broods. Outside the breeding season it forms flocks, sometimes with other finches.

Sources

Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European serin (Serinus serinus) male.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC707656, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/707656

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC918125, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/918125

Sound: Tim Vochten, XC944724, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/944724

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

See also