Garden Wildlife
Garden Wildlife
Garden Wildlife
Garden Wildlife
What do they eat?
Bullfinch are bud and blossom feeders which led in the 1960s to their persecution in orchards causing major population decline. They also eat fruit and collect insects and spiders in the breeding season. Bullfinch will come to hanging garden feeders
Where do they breed?
Bullfinch nest in trees, bushes and shrubs in woodland and large gardens. Between May and August they will have two broods of up to 5 eggs.
What do they do?
Mainly birds of broadleaf woodland, scrub and farmland, they are a treat to be seen sometimes in larger gardens, where their liking for the flowers and buds on fruit trees can make them unpopular with keen gardeners.
How are they doing?
By 2000, their population had declined to about 40% of mid 1970s levels, especially in agricultural habitats, since then they have recovered to about 60% of earlier level, with particular increase in urban and suburban sites. Now about 265,000 territories, but still have amber status (improved from their earlier red).
Finding out more:
BTO profile on bullfinch
RSPB profile on bullfinch
Page written and compiled by Steve Head
Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Bullfinch are a treat to watch and are recorded in 13% of gardens in the BTO Garden Birdwatch scheme.
What do they look like?
Our largest resident finch at 16cm, the bullfinch is like a big chaffinch but with a black head and nape, brown back and very heavy-duty bill. The female is very like the male but with slightly muted colours.
What do they sound like?
A repeated “wheep” call, and the song is a quiet warbling and twittering.
Call Song
Dominique Guillerme, XC704729. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/704729.
Lars Edenius, XC699862. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/699862.
What do they eat?
Bullfinch are bud and blossom feeders which led in the 1960s to their persecution in orchards causing major population decline. They also eat fruit and collect insects and spiders in the breeding season. Bullfinch will come to hanging garden feeders
Where do they breed?
Bullfinch nest in trees, bushes and shrubs in woodland and large gardens. Between May and August they will have two broods of up to 5 eggs.
What do they do?
Mainly birds of broadleaf woodland, scrub and farmland, they are a treat to be seen sometimes in larger gardens, where their liking for the flowers and buds on fruit trees can make them unpopular with keen gardeners.
How are they doing?
By 2000, their population had declined to about 40% of mid 1970s levels, especially in agricultural habitats, since then they have recovered to about 60% of earlier level, with particular increase in urban and suburban sites. Now about 265,000 territories, but still have amber status (improved from their earlier red).
Finding out more:
Page written and compiled by Steve Head
What do they look like?
Our largest resident finch at 16cm, the bullfinch is like a big chaffinch but with a black head and nape, brown back and very heavy-duty bill. The female is very like the male but with slightly muted colours.
What do they sound like?
A repeated “wheep” call, and the song is a quiet warbling and twittering.
Call Song
Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Bullfinch are a treat to watch and are recorded in 13% of gardens in the BTO Garden Birdwatch scheme.