- Scientific name: Fringilla coelebs
- Group: Garden and Park Birds
This printable Common Chaffinch coloring page is based on the bird’s compact body, short conical bill, rounded head, and distinctive wing markings. The Common Chaffinch is one of Europe’s most familiar finches. Males are especially colorful, with a blue-gray head, warm reddish breast, chestnut back, and bold white wing bars. Females are more subdued, with softer brown and olive tones.
Use the natural color guide for a realistic result, or choose your own colors and create a more imaginative version.
Color guide
Adult male:
- Head and nape: blue-gray
- Face: warm pinkish brown
- Breast and belly: pinkish red to warm salmon
- Back: chestnut brown
- Rump: olive green
- Wings: black and brown with two bold white wing bars
- Tail: dark gray to black with white outer feathers
- Bill: pale bluish gray in breeding season, duller outside it
- Eyes: dark brown
- Legs and feet: pinkish brown
Adult female:
- Head and body: gray-brown to olive-brown
- Breast and belly: pale brown or buff
- Back: olive-brown
- Wings: darker brown with clear white wing bars
- Tail: dark brown with paler outer feathers
Young birds resemble females and are usually duller than adult males.
How to recognize a Common Chaffinch
The Common Chaffinch is a small finch with a compact body, short strong bill, and a fairly long tail.
Its most useful field marks are the two bright white wing bars and white edges on the tail.
Adult males are easy to recognize by their blue-gray head, reddish-pink breast, and chestnut back. Females are less colorful, but the white wing bars still make them relatively easy to identify.
Chaffinches often feed on the ground beneath trees or around paths, hopping and walking while searching for food.
Their song is a fast, descending series of notes that ends with a distinctive flourish.
Where it lives
Common Chaffinches are widespread across Europe and parts of western Asia and North Africa.
They live in woodland, parks, gardens, farmland, orchards, hedgerows, and other areas with trees and open ground.
They are especially common in places where mature trees provide nesting sites and nearby ground offers plenty of food.
Some populations are resident throughout the year, while others migrate or move south during winter.
What it eats
Common Chaffinches feed mainly on seeds and other plant material outside the breeding season.
Their diet includes grass seeds, weed seeds, grains, buds, and berries.
During spring and summer, they also eat insects, caterpillars, beetles, spiders, and other small invertebrates.
Chicks are fed largely on insects because they need protein for rapid growth.
Interesting facts
- The Common Chaffinch belongs to the finch family, Fringillidae.
- Its scientific name, Fringilla coelebs, is associated with the observation that males and females may form separate flocks in some parts of their range during winter.
- The bold white wing bars are useful identification features in both males and females.
- Male Chaffinches become especially colorful during the breeding season.
- Their song is highly recognizable and is often one of the most common bird sounds in European woodlands and gardens.
- Chaffinches frequently forage on the ground but usually nest in trees or shrubs.
- They are among the most widespread and familiar small birds in Europe.