Bird of the countryside, he does not like the vicinity of cities and will be found in landscapes composed of fields, hedges and small woods. It will launches its easy-to-learn song ("zizizizizizi-ziiii") from a perch high on a shrub or a wire.
The male has lemon yellow underparts, the female is duller. Its strong bill indicates that it is a seed-eater. Like most seed-eaters, it can feed in Europe during winter months and thus only ventures in a short migration. In winter, they gather in small groups that feed where there is enough to eat in the fields.
However, like many birds of agricultural environment, its numbers are greatly reduced: fewer spaces left fallow, seeds coated with pesticides and less available on the ground in winter, fewer hedgerows to reproduce and hide: all these factors contribute to its decline.