FINCH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does finch mean? 

• FINCH (noun)
  The noun FINCH has 1 sense:

1. any of numerous small songbirds with short stout bills adapted for crushing seeds

  Familiarity information: FINCH used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FINCH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous small songbirds with short stout bills adapted for crushing seeds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("finch" is a kind of...):

oscine; oscine bird (passerine bird having specialized vocal apparatus)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "finch"):

Carpodacus purpureus; purple finch (North American finch having a raspberry-red head and breast and rump)

Hawaiian honeycreeper; honeycreeper (small to medium-sized finches of the Hawaiian islands)

towhee (any of numerous long-tailed American finches)

pyrrhuloxia; Pyrrhuloxia sinuata (crested grey-and-red bird of southwest United States and Mexico)

cardinal; cardinal grosbeak; Cardinalis cardinalis; redbird; Richmondena Cardinalis (crested thick-billed North American finch having bright red plumage in the male)

grosbeak; grossbeak (any of various finches of Europe or America having a massive and powerful bill)

bunting (any of numerous seed-eating songbirds of Europe or North America)

New World sparrow (sparrow-like North American finches)

junco; snowbird (small North American finch seen chiefly in winter)

bullfinch; Pyrrhula pyrrhula (common European finch mostly black and white with red throat and breast)

crossbill; Loxia curvirostra (finch with a bill whose tips cross when closed)

serin (any of various brown and yellow finches of parts of Europe)

canary; canary bird (any of several small Old World finches)

Carpodacus mexicanus; house finch; linnet (small finch originally of the western United States and Mexico)

pine finch; pine siskin; Spinus pinus (small finch of North American coniferous forests)

goldfinch; New World goldfinch; Spinus tristis; yellowbird (American finch whose male has yellow body plumage in summer)

Carduelis hornemanni; redpoll (small siskin-like finch with a red crown)

Carduelis flammea; redpoll (small siskin-like finch with a red crown and a rosy breast and rump)

Carduelis cucullata; red siskin (South American species of scarlet finch with black head and wings and tail)

Carduelis spinus; siskin (small yellow-and-black Eurasian finch with a sharp beak)

Carduelis cannabina; linnet; lintwhite (small Old World finch whose male has a red breast and forehead)

Carduelis carduelis; goldfinch (small European finch having a crimson face and yellow-and-black wings)

brambling; Fringilla montifringilla (Eurasian finch)

chaffinch; Fringilla coelebs (small European finch with a cheerful song)

Holonyms ("finch" is a member of...):

family Fringillidae; Fringillidae (finches: goldfinches; bullfinches; chaffinches; siskins; canaries; cardinals; grosbeaks; crossbills; linnets; buntings)

 Context examples 

“The time and energy finches spend spooking themselves by fleeing when they are not in danger could be better spent looking for food, mating, laying eggs, and rearing their young.”

(A decade after the predators have gone, Galapagos Island finches are still being spooked, University of Cambridge)

Interbreeding between the two different species of finches produced fertile offspring of a new species.

(Researchers report rapid formation of new bird species in Galápagos islands, Wikinews)

Given their estimated life span, today’s finches are not likely to be the same birds that had originally developed the response to defend themselves from predators.

(A decade after the predators have gone, Galapagos Island finches are still being spooked, University of Cambridge)

All the eighteen species of finches in the archipelago had a common ancestor, from which they evolved in the course of time due to natural selection.

(Researchers report rapid formation of new bird species in Galápagos islands, Wikinews)

Subsequent eradication efforts have been necessary to protect the iconic finches.

(A decade after the predators have gone, Galapagos Island finches are still being spooked, University of Cambridge)

However, these were not able to attract native finches for copulation and thus had to mate within their own new species, making them genetically and reproductively isolated.

(Researchers report rapid formation of new bird species in Galápagos islands, Wikinews)

On some islands the urban finches were even bolder than those on islands that had never seen invasive predators at all.

(A decade after the predators have gone, Galapagos Island finches are still being spooked, University of Cambridge)

Cactus finches have bigger body and beak as compared to other finch species living on the island at the time.

(Researchers report rapid formation of new bird species in Galápagos islands, Wikinews)

The research focused on one species of Darwin’s iconic finches - the small ground finch, Geospiza fuliginosa.

(A decade after the predators have gone, Galapagos Island finches are still being spooked, University of Cambridge)

Princeton University scientists who were conducting their field work on the island of Daphne Major, noticed a non-native male bird — cactus finches — on the island in 1981.

(Researchers report rapid formation of new bird species in Galápagos islands, Wikinews)