Birds / Finches

Linnet

Linaria cannabina

Also known as Common linnet

Uncommon All year Farmland Heath Coast

Test yourself

Recording: Sander Bot / xeno-canto

Sounds like

A fast, pleasant twittering with soft trills and buzzes, often from the top of a gorse bush or a flock in flight.

Remember it

A babbling, buzzy chatter. Listen for it around gorse.

When and where

Listening for the linnet

Heard: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Mar to Aug
Time of day: Day
Where: Farmland, Heath, Coast
In Britain: All year
Family: Finches

Side by side

Often confused with

Play them one after the other and listen for the difference.

Linnet

Linaria cannabina

JFMAMJJASOND

A babbling, buzzy chatter. Listen for it around gorse.

Goldfinch

Carduelis carduelis

JFMAMJJASOND

Wind chimes in a light breeze.

Greenfinch

Chloris chloris

JFMAMJJASOND

A drawn-out nasal wheeze, like a sigh through the nose.

Could you pick out a linnet?

Hear a song, choose from four birds, and build your streak.

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Same habitat

Also in farmland

See all

Blackbird

Turdus merula

JFMAMJJASOND

Slow, rich, fluting phrases that wander about and often trail off into a quiet chuckle.

Chaffinch

Fringilla coelebs

JFMAMJJASOND

A cheerful, accelerating run of notes that tumbles down and ends in a flourish, repeated over and over.

Dunnock

Prunella modularis

JFMAMJJASOND

A hurried, flat, squeaky warble that stays on one level and stops abruptly, like a squeaky wheel turning.

House Sparrow

Passer domesticus

JFMAMJJASOND

Constant chattering 'chirrup' notes, usually from a group hidden in a hedge or under the eaves.