Common Linnet

Photo by Andy Bright
Photographed: Suffolk, U.K.

Alternative name: Eurasian Linnet

Carduelis cannabina

Identification

It is a slim bird with a long tail. The upperparts are brown, the throat is sullied white and the bill is grey. The summer male has a grey nape, red head patch and red breast.

Females and young birds lack the red and have white underparts with the breast streaked buff. The linnet's pleasant song contains fast trills and twitters.^[1]

Female
Photo by jtwood
Photographed: East Lothian, Scotland

Distribution

Widespread and generally common over much of the Region. Breeds throughout the British Isles and from western France and Iberia east to the Urals reaching north to southern Norway, southern and eastern Sweden and central and southern Finland. In the south occurs on Madeira and the Canary Islands, North-West Africa and most larger Mediterranean islands, Greece, Turkey and the Caucasus and the Middle East.

Northern and eastern birds are migratory, leaving breeding areas in September-October to winter chiefly within range of southern breeders and along coast of North Africa, returning in late March-April, those elsewhere partial migrants or resident.

Vagrants recorded north to Iceland and Lapland and south-east to Kuwait.

Taxonomy

Subspecies: Nominate race occurs in Europe and North-West Africa with Turkestan Linnet C.c.bella from central Turkey to the Caucasus and south to Israel, paler above with very pale rump and pale grey crown and nape in male. The Atlantic Is have three races but they differ little from nominate. Eastern Canarian harterti from Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Graciosa and Allegranza is paler above and whiter on flanks, meadewaldoi from Palma, Hierro, Gomera, Tenerife and Gran Canaria and nana from Madeira are very similar.

Habitat

Open habitats with low shrubs and scattered trees, often on moorland and heathland, along woodland edges, hedgerows and orchards, sometimes in large gardens. Eastern race bella on rocky and scrub-covered mountain slopes. In winter forms large flocks often with other finches and feeds on stubble fields and other cultivated areas, along shorelines and on waste ground.

Behaviour

This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with other finches, such as Twite, on coasts and salt marshes. Its food mainly consists of seeds. The linnet derives its scientific name from its fondness for hemp and its English name from its liking for seeds of flax, from which linen is made.^[1]

Vocalisation

<flashmp3>Carduelis cannabina (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program

References

1. Wikipedia

External Links

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