First records of the Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and European Greenfinch Carduelis chloris from Lord Howe Island

Abstract

Details are given of the first records of two species of finch from Lord Howe Island: the Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and the European Greenfinch Carduelis chloris. These records, from the early 1980s, have been quoted in several papers without the details having been published. My Common Chaffinch records are the first for the species in Australian Territory. Details of my records and of other published records of other European Finches on Lord Howe Island are listed, and speculation is made on the origin of these finches.