Chaffinch Identification

It was about a year ago that the IOC split Chaffinch into five different species with the announcement by Birdguides HERE and the underlying research paper HERE.

Inspired by a recent trip to Madeira and an encounter with Maderia Chaffinch, here are a collection of annotated photos of Chaffinches from around the Western Palearctic that have featured on this blog.

Fig 1. below is an extract from Recuerda et al  HERE and is a useful and simple way of identifying the various species of Chaffinch (males). The annotations under the photos below walk through some of these features. 

 Fig. 1 Summary of the main phenotypic differences among males of the different chaffinch taxa. Colors depicted for the different body parts are approximate estimates of real colors obtained from photographs

EUROPEAN CHAFFINCH

Early Spring male European Chaffinch with blue-grey crown and nape (bluer in summer), with brown upper and lower back and green rump which is fluffed up in this image, face. lores and underparts are all rusty brown with a paler belly

Winter plumage male European Chaffinch with more subdued colours than in summer which brighten with ware 

Female European Chaffinch 

MADEIRA CHAFFINCH 

A striking Spring male Madeira Chaffinch with blue head and nape, green upper back and blue lower back, green rump (barely visible), peachy coloured lores and underparts which are paler on the belly. Also a blue wash along the flanks. 

Another striking Spring male Madeira Chaffinch showing the same features- blue head and nape, green upper back and blue lower back, green rump (visible adjacent to secondaries), peachy coloured lores and underparts which are paler on the belly. Also a blue wash along the flanks. 

Female Madeira Chaffinch- female Chaffinches are very similar although the tones are much contrasting than the rather more uniform female European Chaffinch above

AZORES CHAFFINCH

Male Azores Chaffinch (above and below)- very similar to Madeira Chaffinch apart from having a black post-ocula patch (behind the eye). Structurally Azores Chaffinch appears to have a heavier bill too. The contrast in the two toned upper and lower back also appears to be less in Azores. 

Female Azores Chaffinch- very similar to other female Chaffinches 

Presumably a first-winter male Azores Chaffinch with very subdued adult male pattern

CANARY ISLAND CHAFFINCH

When I went to Tenerife and saw these birds I didn't have a decent camera so I've had to nab a pic off the internet (credit to Lars Peterson). There are different races of Canary Island Chaffinch on all the western Canary islands (they do not occur on Fuerteventura or Lanzarote) but the main feature of all the island forms that differentiate them from all other Chaffinch species is the concolorous blue crown, nape and upper and lower back. For more subtle differences between the island forms see Fig 1. 

AFRICAN CHAFFINCH 

Spring male African Chaffinch (Morocco). The striking feature of this species is the distinctive head pattern comprised on a blue crown, nape and face with black lores and a prominent white eye ring.