BirdGuides
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Three Cardueline finches can be seen throughout much of Britain and Ireland, but numbers of each are in decline, with all three Red-listed as Birds of Conservation Concern, so seeing any of them will brighten up a day's birding. They can appear confusingly similar – small, brown and streaky. Breeding males are the most distinctive, but other plumages are much trickier.
Andy Stoddart provides all the information and advice you need to recognise each in the field, in all plumages.
Male Common Linnet (Norderney, Germany, 25 June 2011). It is little wonder that the small finches have always been popular cagebirds. With its brilliant red forehead and breast and rich russet upperparts, this male Common Linnet is indeed a thing of beauty (Stefan Pfützke / www.green-lens.de).