Good as gold

If we were travelling abroad and saw a goldfinch, I think we'd be stunned into silence by their exotic looks. Their constant chattering and trilling, almost liquid bubbling, song has given them the fitting collective noun of ‘charm'. The combination of golden yellow with warm beige hues and creams for their body contrast with striking red faces edged by an arc of white behind the eyes and a black cape that descends from the back of the head to the shoulders. 

It's only in recent years that goldfinches have become regular visitors to gardens. Results from the British Trust for Ornithology's weekly Garden Birdwatch citizen science survey show that they're now 70% more frequent than they were just 20 or so years ago.

Our gardens are now supporting a growing population of goldfinches, bucking the trend seen in many other species. In the wider countryside, these birds are adept at extracting seeds from thistles, teasels, ragwort, dandelions and more. Our modern world, however, insists on tidiness and many of these ‘weeds’ are disappearing so gardens with feeders and, hopefully, a few wild areas are becoming increasingly important for their survival.

Bachelor birds

Chaffinches were traditionally woodland birds but have adapted well to our changing environment. Whilst they have the nickname of bachelor bird because male and females migrate and group together separately in winter, male birds actually sing their catchphrase up to 3000 times a day to proclaim their territory in spring. It's females, however, that take charge of nesting - they choose where to build a nest and they undertake an exhausting 1300 or more visits in order to construct it. 

In the bird world, it's often the the males who have the showy plumage, which allows the females to sit on a nest and not be seen. Don't be fooled by chaffinches. The males may have deep orange and pink colours with a blue-grey cap and green and black colouring in their wings. Take a look at a 'boring beige' female when the light catches her and you'll notice the white flashes on her wings and beautiful but subtle shades of green amongst her feathers. 

Our UK-born chaffinches tend to stay put but now that autumn's here, if you're keen on counting how many birds you see in your garden or local patch you may notice that chaffinch numbers increase. This is because our UK birds are joined by their European cousins as harsh weather further north and east push them to our milder climate.

Chaffinch song is one of the first birdsongs that I remember learning. It's tricky to describe but easy to remember once you've learnt it - a trill of notes that finish with a flourish that sounds a little like 'ginger beer'. A few years ago, when walking through a Suffolk wood, I heard something that sounded like a chaffinch but wasn't quite right - I learnt that chaffinches have regional accents!

Green with envy

Like chaffinches, UK greenfinches don't travel far but their numbers are boosted by arrivals from Norway each autumn and winter. The ringing of birds (where a small ring is placed on their legs) allows us to track birds that have either been re-caught, photographed or found dead - recoveries of greenfinches tell us that some have travelled an amazing 2000km. 

Male greenfinches are unmistakeable with their olive-green feathers and a flash of yellow in their wings. The females are less vivid and, at a quick glance, are sometimes easy to mistake for female house sparrows. If you're lucky in spring you may see the males performing an aerial dance, complete with singing, that shows off their beautiful feathers but at this time of year you should look for them cracking open yew berries for the seeds within (they're one of few birds with beaks strong enough to do this).  

Giving our finches a helping hand

There’s lots we can all do to attract these beautiful birds to our gardens and to help them to stay healthy when they appear.

• As well as the food you put out for them, finches love natural seeds. If you've grown sunflowers, don't deadhead them but leave them in situ and delight when the goldfinches come to call. It's not just the bigger flowers - verbena, lavender, knapweed, teasel, flax and evening primrose will all attract finches to your autumn and winter gardens. If you've not got these already, think about planting them for next year and you'll also be rewarded with bees and butterflies when they flower. 
• Leave a wild patch with long grass to provide seedheads. You may also find that other wildlife moves in - whether it be slow-worms, hedgehogs or even bumblebees like common carders that make their nests amongst long grass.
• If you've got the room, plant trees like silver birch or rowan alongside a mix of shrubs to provide structure that will offer both food and shelter.
• Put out a variety of food from sunflower hearts to niger seeds and millet. 
• Cleaning feeders is really important. Trichomonosis, a disease that affects the upper digestive tract of finches, has devastated the UK's greenfinch population and its spread can partly be attributed to dirty feeders where birds congregate. Birds are left unable to swallow, puffed-up and lethargic. Chaffinches can suffer from growths on their legs that can be caused by either mites or a virus - cleaning feeding stations regularly can help to reduce the transmission of problems like these. If you do see an unwell bird in your garden, you can report it via the Garden Wildlife Health website.