The Linnet – A Bird Always On The Move!

Updated May 31, 2023

During the winter, the species stays in the meadows, in numerous flocks, or in the open countryside, where it ventures, among hedges and rows, in search of seeds or some insects. Distinctly gregarious habits that the species sometimes maintains even during the reproductive period when it nests “in society” among the dense vegetation, in the bushes and in the hedges. With a particularly melodic call, it is often captured to be bred in captivity and sometimes hybridized with the Canary.

Everything You Need To Know About The Linnet:

Unlike many other species of birds, during the reproductive period the absolutely not flashy linnet doesn’t own a feeding ground. But instead collectively uses surfaces with a decent amount of food available, like mowing lawns. The nesting bird usually cover and protect an area of about 15 meters around the nest, this limit is respected and getting too close is avoided by the neighboring couples. The male enjoys hanging on the branches around where the nest is located, showing off on top of a bush or on some higher ground. By doing this he marks its territory of nesting that, together with the female, defends even from other species of birds.

It is a gregarious species in winter. It usually moves in groups looking for food both on the ground and on tall grasses and bushes, often in small groups. Due to its small size it is not easy to identify it especially when it is placed on the ground. Things are simplified when it is in flight (wavy and not fast) and then recognize it from other species of similar size especially for the white wing bar and the white external helms. It is a very active species and is constantly moving around.

Quick Facts:

1. Aspect

The male in summer dress has tawny shoulders and back and the terminal part of the wings is blackish with a shaded white area visible even when the subject is posed. The head is grey with a red vertex and a white suffused throat. The chest is red / pink and fades to the dirty white of the abdomen and a suffused fawn on the sides. The legs and beak are sometimes grey with shades of fawn. The tail is blackish with white external coxswain.

In winter, the male assumes a color in all the upper parts of a tawny brown with a lighter brown head and the red disappears from the head and almost completely from the chest. All undersides are fawn white with light brown flecks on the sides. The beak is dark yellowish. The females resemble the males in winter dress but exhibit a grey-black beak and slightly heavier streaks on the sides and chest; the white area on the wing is much more subdued. Juveniles look almost exactly as the male in winter dress.

2. Distribution

The linnet habitat extends to many areas of Europe, Asia and Africa. At least seven different subspecies have been counted, and the nominal species (Linaria cannabina cannabina) is also called Eurasian linnet to distinguish it from the others more widespread in Africa or in the islands (Balearics, Canaries, Corsica).

3. Diet

Like all granivorous birds, the Linnet feeds mainly on seeds, but also on insects.

4. Breeding

It usually nests on bushes near streams, laying up to 4-6 blue-white eggs, dotted with light brown at the ends, for a maximum of two annual broods. The incubation of the eggs lasts about 13 days, and the chicks are ready for flight already 15 days after hatching, although they will have to wait a couple of weeks for complete weaning.

5. Conservation

Classified as in decline in the European Union, the linnet has an unfavorable conservation status even at the continental level. Overall, there is stability of the breeding population in the European Union in the period 1970-1990, followed by moderate decline in the period 1990-2000.

Currently, the breeding population in the EU is estimated at 5,000,000-13,000,000 pairs, equal to approximately half of the continental population of the species (10,000,000-28,000,000 pairs) and a fraction between 25 and 49% of the global population of the species. The Italian population appears stable and is estimated at 100,000-400,000 couples, equal to 2-3% of the EU community population and just over 1% of the total continental population.

In order to improve the prospects of the species, it is essential to favor the maintenance of traditional agricultural landscapes in mountain areas with non-intensive agriculture and pastoralism. The maintenance of marginal elements such as small uncultivated shrubs, hedges and small trees or isolated shrubs in cultivated or grazed areas should also be encouraged, limiting the use of pesticides in orchards and crops frequented by the species.

To date it is particularly likely that the state of health of the populations is more favorable at higher altitudes, while at lower altitudes the combined effect between the abandonment of traditional agricultural practices, the consequent advance of the forest, the massive use of pesticides in areas subject to intensification of agricultural practices, has probably led to a significant reduction in suitable habitat.

Federico "Fred" Fiorillo

Federico Fiorillo is an Italian nature guide and content writer based in the magnificent Val de Bagnes, Switzerland. He’s an avid hiker and snowboarder and he travels to the great wilderness areas of the world to see the wildlife and birds he’s passionate about.

In 2008 and 2011 he joined two Brazilian wildlife field trips in Bahia and decided that observing birds in their habitat was going to be one of his driving passions. He completed a birdwatching course with EBN Italia in 2013, and then in 2014 and 2015 he travelled to South East Asia, Australia and the United States where he joined a photographic workshop at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah.

From 2016 to 2018 he lives in New Zealand, where he collaborates in environmental projects at the Otorohanga Kiwi House, which since 1971 protects kiwi and other New Zealand native birds, among the projects he worked hands on the most rewarding was the one aiming to release Brown Kiwis into the wild.

In 2017, he completes a backcountry survival course obtaining the skillsets needed to thrive in-stead of just survive in the face of adversity in the wilderness. In 2017 he also joins a NZ Bird Photography Tour in Ulva Island and at the Royal Albatross Center of the Otago Peninsula, home to the world’s only mainland Royal Albatross breeding colony.

After his travels across the South Pacific, following his experiences in 2018 he moves in the Swiss Alps where he’s now a nature guide leading tours in the alpine region between Switzerland, Italy and France. Leading nature walks and overnight hiking trips, teaching tourists and locals the secrets of the plants and animals living in this alpine region.

Inspired by an alternative lifestyle he believes in the importance of being in connection with the natural environment and feels the responsibility of interpreting the natural wealth of a site, educating and informing other of the different aspects of that particular area.