Bullfinch
- Bullfinches have a huge range, extending from Ireland right across northern Europe and Asia to Japan.
- The Azores bullfinch is one of the world’s rarest birds, with a population of fewer than 120 pairs restricted to the island of São Miguel.
- The name ‘bullfinch’ comes from the bird’s frontheavy, bull-headed appearance.
- Bullfinches were once popular cage birds. They can be taught to imitate a special bird flute or whistle.
- The short, stubby beak is specially adapted for feeding on buds.
- They are particularly enthusiastic eaters of the buds of certain fruit trees. Conference, Dr Jules and Williams pears are particularly popular, along with Morello cherries.
- Due to their bud-eating habits, many thousands used to be legally trapped and killed each year in English orchards.
- Research has shown that a commercial fruit tree can lose up to half its buds without the harvest being affected - so the culling may well have been unnecessary.
- The bullfinch’s call is a soft piping note that carries surprisingly far: you often hear the call but don’t see the caller.
- They are specialist seed and bud eaters; they only catch insects during a brief period in the summer when feeding their young.
- British birds are highly sedentary, seldom moving more than a few kilometres during their lives.
- In contrast, northern populations are migratory, occasionally reaching Britain during the winter.
- Northern bullfinches are both bigger and brighter than our native birds; the differences are quite easy to see in the field.
- They form strong, lasting pair bonds and it’s usual to see birds in pairs throughout the year.
- Females usually show dominance over the males – is the cock bullfinch the original hen-pecked male?
- Nests have a double construction, with the twiggy base supporting a cup of interwoven fine grass and dried rootlets.
- Most pairs will attempt to raise two broods a year; some manage three.
- Though small flocks may form at feeding sites in the winter, studies have shown that birds fly to the site individually or in pairs.
- While Continental birds prefer coniferous forests, particularly of spruce, those in Britain are more usually found in areas with broadleaved trees.
- The bullfinch is one of our shyest garden birds, which may explain its reluctance to visit feeders.
- In addition to the common and Azores bullfinch, there are five other species: brown, Philippine, orange, red-headed and Beavan’s.
