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Body length: 17-18 cm
Body mass: 50-60 g
Appearance: mainly pinkish-brown, but with grey nape, small black throat-patch and powerful-looking triangular bill
Met with fairly often, but nowhere very common, this is an inhabitant of hornbeam and beech forests. The (typically hornbeam) twig nest lined with lichens and plant fibres is not usually very well-concealed, located on a side-branch of a broadleaved tree, several metres above the ground. Nicknamed the “flying nutcracker” due to the aforementioned bill, which can crack a cherry-stone, or a hornbeam nut. Other seeds are also consumed, as well as insects. Polish hawfinches winter in Western Europe, while birds from further east take their place here.
Descriptions drawing on content of Ptaki Polski (“Birds of Poland”) - a book authored by Andrzej G. Kruszewicz, and published by MULTICO Oficyna Wydawnicza Sp. z o.o.
