Linnet

Linnet

Linaria cannabina

Silhouette: Louis-Julien de la Bouëre · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~50% · Likely
at Liverpool

In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%

1,670 Verified sightings at Liverpool
9,454 In all 26 parks From 2019 to 2026
April Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Linnet

The common linnet or Eurasian linnet (Linaria cannabina) is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae. It derives its common name and the scientific name, Linaria, from its fondness for hemp seeds and flax seeds—flax being the English name of the plant from which linen is made.

In 1758, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the common linnet in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name, Acanthis cannabina. The species was formerly placed in the genus Carduelis but based on the results of a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences published in 2012, it was moved to the genus Linaria that had been introduced by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1802.

The genus name linaria is the Latin for a linen-weaver, from linum, "flax". The species name cannabina comes from the Latin for hemp. The English name has a similar root, being derived from Old French linette, from lin, "flax".

There are seven recognised subspecies: Non-breeding in north Africa... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call1:18

Spain · 2026

© Jacobo Ramil Millarengo · XC1107561 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song1:24

Sweden · 2025

© Lars Edenius · XC1008473 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Recording0:17

Sweden · 2022

© Erik Hansson · XC726491 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Picos de Europa National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~50%
2 Mercantour National Park 🇫🇷 France
~50%
3 Vanoise National Park 🇫🇷 France
~40%
4 Ecrins National Park 🇫🇷 France
~40%
5 Kiskunság National Park 🇭🇺 Hungary
~40%
6 Fertő-Hanság National Park 🇭🇺 Hungary
~30%
7 Biebrza National Park 🇵🇱 Poland
~30%
8 Wadden Sea National Park 🇩🇪 Germany
~30%
9 Sierra Nevada National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~30%
10 Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~30%
11 Aigüestortes National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~20%
12 Pyrénées National Park 🇫🇷 France
~20%
13 Hohe Tauern National Park 🇦🇹 Austria
~20%
14 Monfragüe National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~20%
15 Gauja National Park 🇱🇻 Latvia
~20%
16 Sierra de Guadarrama National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~20%
17 Białowieża National Park 🇵🇱 Poland
~20%
18 Hortobágy National Park 🇭🇺 Hungary
~20%
19 Cévennes National Park 🇫🇷 France
~20%
20 Snowdonia National Park 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
~20%
21 Doñana National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~20%
22 Tatra National Park 🇸🇰 Slovakia
~10%
23 Camargue 🇫🇷 France
~10%
24 Bavarian Forest National Park 🇩🇪 Germany
<5%
25 Cairngorms National Park 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
<5%
26 Triglav National Park 🇸🇮 Slovenia
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Amman 🇯🇴 Jordan
~70%
2 Liverpool 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
~50%
3 Dublin 🇮🇪 Ireland
~20%
4 Ramallah 🇵🇸 Palestine
~20%
5 London 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
~10%
6 Helsinki 🇫🇮 Finland
~10%
7 Novosibirsk 🇷🇺 Russia
~10%
8 Sincan 🇹🇷 Turkey
~10%
9 Astana 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan
~10%
10 Mashhad 🇮🇷 Iran
~10%

Zoos & Centres Where Found

# Zoo / Centre Country
1 Dresden Zoo 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
2 Yerevan Zoo 🇦🇲 Armenia In captivity
3 Penza Zoo 🇷🇺 Russia In captivity

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Linnet in Liverpool?

Likely

About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Linnet sighting in Liverpool on a given day, based on 1,670 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 26th most-seen of the 168 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Linnet in Liverpool?

April and July–October

In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Linnet in Liverpool on a given day, against about 30% in December, the lowest month.

What time of day is best to see a Linnet?

Between 11 am and 2 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Linnet sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Liverpool the best place to see a Linnet?

2nd of 50

Of the 50 cities where we can rate Linnet sightings, Liverpool ranks 2nd at about 50%. The best odds are in Amman (Jordan, about 70%).

Which relatives of the Linnet live in Liverpool?

Same family: Fringillidae

The closest relatives of the Linnet that you can see in Liverpool (family Fringillidae, Finches, Euphonias, and Allies) are Eurasian Goldfinch (about 80%), European Greenfinch (about 50%) and Chaffinch (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Linnet sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Linnet is recorded against all the birds logged in Liverpool (1,670 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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