Linnet

Linnets are resident breeders as well as Winter visitors.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Linaria cannabina
Family: 
Finches
Family Latin name: 
Fringillidae
Category: 
Birds

Species description

Species description

Linnets are small birds in the finch family with streaky brown bodies. Males have obvious pink chests and small pink caps on their otherwise grey heads.

They generally form large flocks in winter and seek seeds in open country and on farmland. During the breeding season, they prefer to find refuge in scrubby habitats (the Cemetery being ideal for this).

Changes in farming practice have impacted this small bird, especially in Ireland and parts of western and northern Scotland, although records have recovered slightly in more recent years.

Typically, females will lay 4–5 eggs per clutch, and they may have 2 (exceptionally 3) broods a year.

Young chick will forage for seeds in bramble patches and similar scrub.

In literature, although the linnet in Oscar Wilde's The Devoted Friend is well-known, his use of the bird in his more famous The Selfish Giant is perhaps more poignant, with the bird's melodic singing transforming the Giant's bleak mood to something far more generous. At the time Wilde featured the bird in these two stories, Linnets were, unfortunately, very popular in Britain as caged birds, their song being particularly melodic.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)
Stock species image
A male Linnet in breeding plumage

Image obtained from Wikipedia. (Male Linnet in breeding plumage.)

Details

Species family information

Finches are among our most colourful songsters, and familiar garden birds. They are specialist seed-eaters, whose bills vary in size, shape, and stoutness according to the preferred seed diet.

Category information

The earliest feathered dinosaur fossils date from the early Cretaceous, but the ancestry of birds goes further back to Jurassic theropod dinosaurs, which shared a common ancestor with the crocodilians. Well known theropod groups include the tyrannosaurs, allosaurs, and other carnivores. Of surviving bird groups, the most ancient are the ratites (ostriches, rheas, tinamous, moas, kiwis, cassowaries, and emus), followed in evolutionary order by the waterfowl (ducks, geese and swans) and then the land fowl (chickens, turkeys, pheasants and their kin). Heene cemetery’s most ancient bird visitors are the woodpigeons. Strictly, therefore, we ought to refer to birds as dinosaurs, for they are direct descendants. The RSPB would be more accurately restyled as the RSPD. Where known, the conservation status of each bird is given as red, amber, or green, according to its survival potential based on 2016 populations and recent population trends.

Birds are warm-blooded, and have feathers, toothless, beaked jaws, and a strong, lightweight skeleton. They lay hard-shelled eggs. Their hearts have four chambers, and their metabolic rate is high. Although most are adapted for flight, many can also run, jump, swim and dive. Flightless birds retain vestigial wings. Brown, green, and grey are the commonest bird colours, for camouflage.

Protections

Legal protections and status
Birds of Conservation Concern 4: Red list
UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species
Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981