Finches

A general name for any of many different kinds of small seed-eating birds. We have only a single direct reference to finches in accounts of the Third Age: at the Lonely Mountain, after the death of Smaug, they joined with starlings, crows and other birds in a huge flock. Though they are only described directly at Erebor, finches were clearly known far and wide across Middle-earth. For example, when Samwise Gamgee found himself in dire straits on the borders of Mordor, he thought of the Shire in springtime, imagining it as the time when 'the merry finches sing' (The Return of the King VI 1, The Tower of Cirith Ungol). They were also mentioned by Gandalf, who claimed that the eyesight of the Elf Legolas was so sharp that he could tell the difference between a finch and a sparrow over a distance of a league.