Goldfinch Call MP3s
A bright, twittering call from one of Europe's most familiar garden finches, useful for identification, birding playback, or simply enjoying its song.
Also known as
Recordings (5)
About this species
A passerine songbird measuring roughly 13 cm, the Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) is unmistakable — vividly marked with a crimson-and-white face and broad gold wing-bars. It loves weedy waste ground, thistle-heads, orchards and rough field margins.
Its liquid, tinkling twitter is as bright and busy as the bird itself. It feeds on the seeds of thistles, teasels and other weeds, extracted with its fine, tweezer-like bill. It roams in tinkling 'charms', bouncing between thistle-heads and treetops. From breeding grounds across Europe to Mediterranean and African wintering areas, its seasonal journeys mark the turning year.
Legal use
The Goldfinch is a small seed-eating finch native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia, and it is not a game bird anywhere in that range: it is fully protected under the EU Birds Directive, the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act, and the Bern Convention, and taking or killing wild birds is prohibited outside narrow derogations. Malta is the key exception, repeatedly authorising live-capture of Goldfinch and six other finch species each autumn under a 'scientific research' framework; the EU Court of Justice has twice ruled this unlawful (2018 and September 2024), the European Commission opened fresh infringement proceedings after Malta reissued the derogation for 2025, and it remains trapping for aviculture under active legal challenge, not sanctioned hunting. Considerable illegal trapping for the songbird trade also occurs across the wider Mediterranean and North Africa, but that activity is unlawful poaching, not sanctioned quarry hunting, in every jurisdiction we are aware of. This recording is intended for identification, birdwatching, or personal listening use; see our full country-by-country disclaimer for the legal position where you are.