Linnet - a photo on Flickriver

Linnet

I managed to captured this bright, male Linnet on a lichen-covered rock with a bokeh of pink Sea-thrift behind, a scene so typical of Scilly. Males in particular are very variable and seem to take two years before they attain the pink flush on the breast and head like this bird. This is quite a common feature of finches as others such as Crossbill and Common Rosefinch take at least two years before they acquire full breeding plumage. That seems odd as small birds like Linnet don't generally live long (typically 2 years, oldest 8), so you'd think natural selection would have maximised the breeding opportunities. Though one year-olds do usually have a nesting attempt, but less successfully than older males.

Linnet is largely a bird of farmland, feeding on seeds of crops and weeds. In fact the name Linnet comes to us via old French meaning little bird of the flax (Linum). Its generic scientific name Linaria also refers to flax while its specific scientific name cannabina refers to its penchant for hemp seeds (Hemp was grown for its fibres, similar to flax). Despite the named associations with arable crops they mainly eat "weed" seeds, even feeding their chicks on seeds, which is highly unusual as most seed-eating songbirds feed chicks on insects. Linnets nest in hedgerows and especially gorse bushes and their twittery song is a familiar sound in farmland in spring. Here it is on Xeno canto: www.xeno-canto.org/619036 They are red listed in Britain because of a >50% decline but there are still 560,000 breeding pairs.

Taken on: May 10, 2022

Tags:

Linaria

cannabina

male

cock

Scilly

Tim Melling « less

Sets appears in: • British Birds

Stats: 6,049 views / 29 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder