Details

Finches are typically inhabitants of well-wooded areas, but some can be found on mountains or even in deserts. They are primarily granivorous, but euphoniines include considerable amounts of arthropods and berries in their diet, and Hawaiian honeycreepers evolved to utilize a wide range of food sources, including nectar. The diet of Fringillidae nestlings includes a varying amount of small arthropods. True finches have a bouncing flight like most small passerines, alternating bouts of flapping with gliding on closed wings. Most sing well and several are commonly seen cagebirds; foremost among these is the domesticated Canary (Serinus canaria domestica). The natural songs of bullfinches are plain and short, but the birds are known to learn songs that are whistled to them. Bullfinches sing the learned songs with precision though always a semitone higher than the melody originally whistled to them (Tim Birkhead, author of "The Wisdom of Birds"). The nests are basket-shaped and usually built in trees, more rarely in bushes, between rocks or on similar substrate.[