English: Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis, male, East Chevington, Northumberland, UK
Date 21 March 2014
Author MPF https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MPF
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0_Carduelis_carduelis,_East_Chevington.jpg

The European goldfinch or goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia. It has been introduced to other areas including Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay. The goldfinch was described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner in his Historiae animalium of 1555. In 1758 Linnaeus included the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name, Carduelis carduelis. Carduelis is the classical Latin word for a goldfinch. Modern molecular genetic studies have shown that the European goldfinch is most closely related to the citril finch, (Carduelis citrinella) and the Corsican finch, (Carduelis corsicana).
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Genus: Carduelis
Species: Carduelis carduelis (Linnaeus, 1758)