Head to head
Finch vs Sparrow
Finches and sparrows are the small brown birds at the feeder, and they overlap enough that the names are used loosely, especially in North America. The reliable guide is the bird's family, not the common name.
| Finch | Sparrow | |
|---|---|---|
| True family | Fringillidae | Passeridae (Old World) or Passerellidae (New World) |
| Bill | Shorter, deeper, sharply pointed | Conical but slightly less specialised |
| Plumage | Often bright; strong male/female difference | Plainer, streaky brown and grey |
| Flight | Deep, bounding, undulating | More direct, less bounding |
| Feeding the young | Regurgitated seed paste | Whole insects and larvae |
| Song | Twittering, canary-like in many | Chirps in house sparrow; musical in New World |
| Famous members | Goldfinch, canary, crossbill, honeycreepers | House sparrow; song and white-throated sparrows |
| Relationships | One natural family | Two families that are not close relatives |
Finch vs Sparrow: common questions
Is a house sparrow a finch?
No. The house sparrow belongs to the Old World sparrow family, Passeridae, whose closest relatives are the weavers of Africa and Asia. It is not a member of the true finch family, Fringillidae. The confusion is understandable, since both are small, stout, conical-billed seed-eaters that visit gardens and feeders, but they are on separate branches of the songbird tree. The house finch, by contrast, is a genuine finch, native to western North America and now widespread across the continent, and it is the bird most often confused with the house sparrow in the United States, where the male's red head and breast are the giveaway.
Why are the American birds called sparrows not really sparrows?
When English-speaking settlers reached the Americas, they applied the familiar name sparrow to the small, streaky, brown seed-eating birds they saw, even though those birds belong to a different family from the Old World house sparrow. The New World sparrows, family Passerellidae, include the song sparrow, chipping sparrow, white-throated sparrow, juncos, and towhees, and their nearest relatives are the buntings and the New World blackbirds, not the Old World sparrows or the finches. So the word sparrow, like robin, covers two quite different groups of birds on the two sides of the Atlantic, a legacy of colonists naming new animals after old ones.
Which is more common at a garden feeder?
It depends on where you live and the food on offer. In much of Europe, the house sparrow was historically the default feeder bird, though it has declined sharply in many cities, and finches such as the chaffinch, greenfinch, and goldfinch are now often more numerous, with goldfinches especially drawn to nyjer and sunflower hearts. In North America, house finches, American goldfinches, and house sparrows all visit feeders freely, along with several native sparrow species in season. In general, tube feeders with small seeds favour finches, while ground-scattered grain and bread favour sparrows.