Last week it was the Green-breasted Mango Hummingbird, this week it is the linnet. Just saying. King’s Lynn have the linnet as their emblem because of its many and varied qualities, most of them nice. The linnet, a once common bird in the UK, was red-listed in the 1990s as it has been mysteriously decreasing in numbers.
Some blame this on man’s encroachment into its natural habitat, while another theory posits that the linnet is being captured in Malta during its migratory flight by a beautiful woman with two henchmen and a large net, with the aim of making her the most powerful being in the world through wearing a bridal gown and train made solely of linnet feathers.
It is true that the second theory is only found on one internet blog – Songbird Conspiracy Theories THAT ARE TRUE – but it has not been publicly discounted by the RSPB. The linnet is known for its high frail song and its distinctive call to a prospective mate: “Caw – Caw – Cawm ‘ere.” Cameron Carter