Carduelis chloris - sexing

Greenfinch

SEXING:

Sexing Greenfinches is straight forward in all plumages. There are several separating charcters, and the following two from Svensson (1992) gives very few (if any) intermediates:

Male, 1cy October. Outer vanes of P3-5 almost entirely yellow (yellow reaching the feather shafts). [2KR45000]

Female, 2cy+ December. Outer vanes of P3-5 have less yellow, primarily along the edge (yellow does not reach the feather shafts). Note that this is an adult female with much yellow - most females show less yellow than this. [2KS80224]

Male, 2cy April. Much yellow on the inner vanes of R4-6, with pure yellow reaching the feather shafts, even though the RR are juvenile. [2KS80327]

Female, 2cy+ December. The photo shows a female with unusually much yellow on the inner vanes of the adult R4-6. Note that narrow portions of dark grey runs along the shafts (and that no, or only little, pure yellow reaches the shafts). Most females have distinctly less yellow than this - some have only a diffuse and small area of pale yellowish white on the inner vanes. [2KS80224]

More Carduelis chloris:
Ageing autumn
Ageing spring
Moult

Ringers’ DigiGuide main page

Ringers’ DigiGuide is sponsored by:

Hemsidan producerad i samarbete med
BirdLife Sverige