(Part of the) common name of many species of the family Fringillidae (Passeriformes, suborder Oscines) and in the plural the general term for the family which is rather heterogeneous and has been divided into several subfamilies: the Fringillinae (chaffinches a.o.), the Carduelinae (including serins, goldfinches and greenfinches), the Pyrrhuloxinae (cardinal-grosbeaks, not discussed here), and Geospizinae (Darwin's finches, not discussed here). It should be noted that also many weaver-finches of the Estrildidae family, chiefly from Australia and south-eastern Asia, are called 'finches', which is taxonomically incorrect. Similarly some species of the Passerinae subfamily (sparrows) of the family Ploceidae (suborder Oscines) are named 'snow-finches'. Finches can be characterised as primarily arboreal, seed-eating birds with nine (most other birds have ten) functional primaries and twelve tail-feathers. The bill is adapted for extracting or shelling seeds and is generally very hard, swollen at the base and more or less conical in shape. Variations in shape are nevertheless large and the Goldfinch, for example, has a slender bill with needle-like tip, while grosbeaks have very massive, pyrimidal bills. The most curious bills occur in the crossbills Loxia spp. of which both tips cross at oblique angles to extract seeds from the cones of conifers. Most species are gregarious and social, as compared with most other passerines. Their nest is cup-shaped and compactly built by the hen alone. The young are usually fed by regurgitation. Most finches inhabit the temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa and America, but a few species are found in (sub)arctic or (sub)tropical regions. The cardueline finches (122 species, cosmopolitan distribution except Australasia and Madagascar) can be further divided into several groups. The serins Serinus spp. (15 species, distributed in the Ethiopian- and southern Palaearctic Region) are yellowish and green, or sometimes greyish and nearly white, with a streaked plumage. The goldfinches, greenfinches, siskins and redpolls form another, widely distributed, group of mostly streaked plumage and slight sexual dimorphism. The Rosy finches Leucosticte spp. (only 3 species, with rather dull plumage) are restricted to high mountains. Carpodacus is the largest genus (20 species) of rose and purple sparrow-like finches which are basically brownish or greyish and heavily streaked; but the males are washed with various shades of red, while the females lack this red pigment. It includes the Common Rose Finch. The earlier-mentioned cross-bills inhabit coniferous forests where they are more or less nomadic, shifting their breeding ground to follow cone crops. Bullfinches and the earlier-mentioned grosbeaks form the last two groups. The subfamily Fringillinae comprises only 3 species; two chaffinches (of which one is the well-known Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs) and the Brambling Fringilla montifringilla. They are restricted to the Palaearctic Region and differ from the Carduelinae by having no crop (and some other slight anatomical details) and in several aspects of their behaviour. Chaffinches are bluish and green with chestnut areas in the male.

Alternative forms for finches : Bucanetes, Carduelis, Carpodacus, Coccothraustes, finch, Fringilla, Loxia, Montifringilla, Pinicola, Pyrrhula, Serinus.