Common Chaffinch: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Garden Birds · day 6 of 7

Five facts

1. A male chaffinch usually has two or three songs in his repertoire, and chaffinches in different regions sing with local accents.
2. A chaffinch lays four to five speckled eggs. She incubates them for 10-16 days, and the chicks stay in the nest 11-18 days more.
3. Chaffinches average just three years of life, yet the species can live to 15 years and six months.
4. Brought from Britain in the late 1800s, chaffinches reached both main islands of New Zealand by 1900.
5. Europe alone is home to an estimated 130-240 million breeding pairs of chaffinches.

The quiz

1. How many song types do male chaffinches typically sing?

• Just one
• Five or six
• More than twenty
• Two or three (correct)

A male usually has two or three different songs.

2. How long does the female incubate the eggs?

• 10-16 days (correct)
• 2-4 days
• 30-40 days
• 60-70 days

She incubates them for 10-16 days.

3. What is the average lifespan of a chaffinch?

• Ten years
• Fifteen years
• Just three years (correct)
• One year

Chaffinches average just three years of life.

4. By what year had chaffinches reached both main islands of New Zealand?

• 1850
• 1900 (correct)
• 1950
• 2000

They reached both main islands of New Zealand by 1900.

5. How many breeding pairs does Europe alone host?

• 130-240 million (correct)
• 13-24 million
• 1.3-2.4 million
• 1,300-2,400 million

Europe alone hosts an estimated 130-240 million breeding pairs.

More about the Common Chaffinch

Same week

All lessons

Nature documentaries