My mate Piu-Piu is a greenfinch, and like any finch he is a songbird. Birds in general are fit for flight and love singing. Piew-Piew is no exception, so I asked him a few questions about finches and birds in general. Let me share here with you what I learned from him.

Songbirds are the tiniest of all bird species. Birds have their forelimbs modified into wings and their body is covered with feathers that keep them warm and at a constant body temperature. This way, birds to not suffer from cold weather in winter or from heat in summer.

Birds usually feed on seeds, berries and veggies, but some birds may also feed on insects or even small worms. Birds feed through their beaks, which are well adapted to their food habits.

All birds lay eggs to incubate their young. Though depending on their species, the newly hatched chicks (nestlings) are usually born small, blind and naked. They therefore need to be brooded (incubated) in the nest, fed and protected by their parents.

Like mammals, birds are warm-blooded vertebrates with a four-chambered heart allowing a complete separation of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. Birds form a class subdivided in about 30 orders; almost half the species of birds in the world are songbirds. Some of the most well-known European songbirds are: swallows, the common canary, blue tits, blackbirds, sparrows, nightingales, chaffinches and, of course, the greenfinch like Piu-Piu. Soon you’ll find here specific information on them.

All these songbirds are to be found free in the wild, but certain of them have been occasionally domesticated and kept as pets. It’s the case with Piu-Piu who – though being a wild bird – is well accustomed to living with humans.

Did you know that the ancestor of all birds may have been a dinosaur? Well, there is common consensus among scientists that this could be a true theory!