The finch of the weedy field

A bird of the open ground

The common linnet is a small, neat finch of the family Fringillidae. It is one of the most typical birds of the open, scrubby countryside of Europe. The same bird sings from the top of a gorse bush on a southern heath in spring. In winter it joins flocks that work the weeds of the arable field and the seeds of the coastal dune. It is among the most familiar seed-eating birds of the lowlands. Its numbers have fallen as that landscape was tidied. The bird lives on the edge and open ground, not in woods. The male in breeding dress is a smart little finch.

He has a grey head. His forehead and breast are crimson. His back is brown and streaked. His tail is forked. He is unmistakable on the perch. The linnet feeds in restless parties on the ground. It gives a fast, twittering flight call as it moves. It sings a soft, warbling song from an open post.

This makes it a constant presence of the rough grassland and hedgerow. The showy male and the streaked brown female show the clearest sex difference among finches. The linnet likes disturbed, semi-natural ground, not closed habitat. In Europe its numbers have declined. The improvement of farmland and the loss of weedy stubble removed the food the winter flocks need. The species is now a concern in parts of its range, even as it stays common on the heath and dune.

Family tree

Linaria, the small finches

The common linnet is in the genus Linaria, a group of small finches. They differ from the goldfinches and siskins by the heavier, more conical bill. They have a plain, not barred, wing. The linnet is close to the European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis). That more colourful finch shares the seed-eating habit and the love of open, weedy ground.

This shows that the finches are a successful spread of bill specialists. They have colonised the seeds of the northern plants in several lines. Linnaeus described the bird in 1758. Experts now see several subspecies across the range. The large pale birds of the Canary Islands differ from the small dark birds of mainland Europe.

The British form is the nominate cannabina. It differs from its island kin by the bright red and the grey head. The spread to the Atlantic islands produced forms that some treat as species and others as races of one wandering bird. The old name of the linnet refers to the flax whose seeds it was once thought to eat. This shows how close the bird was to the farmer’s crops.

Grey head, crimson breast

How to identify one

An adult common linnet is 13 to 14 centimetres long. Its wingspan is 21 to 25 centimetres. The female weighs about 15 grams. The larger male can reach 22 grams. The small size and stout conical bill give it a neat shape on the perch. Its flight is fast and bouncing. It flaps and glides as the flock skims low across the field. The male in breeding dress has a grey head and nape.

His forehead is crimson. His breast is pink-washed. His back and flank are brown and buff streaked. His wings are blackish with a broad white wing bar. His tail is dark and forked with white sides. The female is streaked buff-brown with no red and a plain face. The two are told apart by the head and breast. The young bird looks like the female until its first autumn.

Then the male begins to show the red. The wings are short and pointed. Flight is fast and direct with a tight flock that twists as one. The voice is a fast, twittering call in flight and from the perch. A soft warbling song is sung from an open post in spring. The wing feathers moult soon after breeding. The birds then gather in the flocks that will take them south.

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Heath, dune and hedgerow

Where it lives

The linnet lives on open and lightly wooded country with a fringe of scrub. Above all it needs the low, patchy plants of the heath, the dune, the rough grassland, the hedgerow and the young plantation. It also needs the weedy margin of the arable field. The species is absent from the closed wood and the intensively farmed monoculture. It is a creature of the disturbed, semi-natural ground of the lowland and coast alike.

In Europe the birds are resident across the milder west and north to the limit of the mild winter. They breed from the southern heath to the northern moor wherever the scrub is thick enough to hide the nest. In the colder east the birds move south and west in winter. They go to the weedy fields and coastal dunes of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. The linnet is a strong, regular migrant.

It travels chiefly by day in flocks that twist as one. Rings show a single bird may return to the same heath for the whole of a life that can exceed eight years. The young disperse along the hedgerows to find their own ground.

A seed specialist

What it eats

The linnet feeds almost wholly on seeds. Its diet is the small seeds of open-ground plants. It takes them by clinging to the stem and hulling the seed with a fine but strong bill. A flock on a weedy field eats the seeds of thistle, dandelion, dock and grass. To this plant diet it adds buds and leaves of the herb where they are tender.

In the breeding season it takes the small invertebrates that supply protein for the eggs and the young. The linnet feeds by clinging and hulling, not by digging. It swallows grit to help the gizzard crush the hard seed. It tolerates short, grazed turf well. This is why it thrives on the heath and dune of the coast.

It is among the finches most at risk from the loss of weedy stubble and fallow ground. The clean, fertilised field offers nothing to a bird that lives on weed seeds. The improvement of farmland removed the food the winter flocks once needed.

A cup in the gorse

The breeding cycle

Linnets pair in the spring. The bond lasts one breeding season. The two adults share the nest, the sitting and the care of the young. The male takes a full part in the brood. This lets the pair raise two broods in a single summer where the season is long. Nesting starts in late April and runs into early autumn.

The site is a neat cup of grass, moss and wool in a dense shrub or hedge. It is often low in the gorse or bramble and hidden among the twigs. The female lays a clutch of four to six eggs. They are pale blue and spotted dark. She sits on them alone for thirteen to fifteen days. The male feeds her on the nest.

The birds may rear two broods in a good year. The chicks are born naked and blind. Both parents feed them and defend them against hedge predators. They can fly at thirteen to sixteen days. By then the family has split up and the young have joined the flocks that take them south.

A bird in decline

Conservation

The common linnet is Least Concern on the global Red List. Yet its recent history in Europe is one of decline. The breeding population of the west has fallen sharply in the last forty years. The loss of weedy stubble and fallow ground caused this. So did the improvement of grassland. So did the clearing of hedgerow and scrub. So did the change in heath and dune management that removed the open, patchy plants the bird needs.

The populations of the east and south have held their numbers across the huge range. The species is protected across its range. In Europe the key heaths and dunes are reserves. They are managed to hold the low, patchy plants the bird needs. The international deals on migratory landbirds have cut the trapping on passage and winter flocks. Yet the bird depends on semi-natural ground. It is vulnerable to the intensification of farmland.

It is listed on the European Union’s birds directive as a priority species. The main threats are the loss of weedy stubble and fallow to the improved crop. The clearing of hedgerow and scrub to the field is another. The drop in grazing that keeps the heath open hurts. The chemical that removes weeds from the margin also hurts. Managing the linnet means keeping the open, patchy ground across the lowlands and paying the farmer to leave the stubble the flock needs.

Quick hits

Five things to remember

• The male linnet has a crimson forehead and a pink-washed breast in spring. The female is streaked buff-brown with no red. The two sexes look like different birds until the young male begins to show the colour in his first autumn.
• The linnet lives almost wholly on the small seeds of open ground. A flock on a weedy field takes the seeds of thistle, dandelion and dock by clinging to the stem and hulling them with a fine but strong bill.
• People once thought the linnet ate flax seeds, and its old name comes from the flax. For centuries it was a favourite cage bird of the European poor because of its soft, warbling song.
• Both sexes share the nest, the sitting and the care of the young. This lets a pair raise two broods in a single summer where the season is long enough.
• The linnet has declined across western Europe as the weedy stubble and fallow ground were lost to the improved crop. It is now a species of concern, though still common on the heath and dune.