Serins are small finches with stubby bills and forked tails. Both males and females have streaky yellow brown upper parts, paler streaked under parts and lemon yellow rumps. Males have bright yellow heads with darker patches on the crown and below the eye, females and juveniles are browner in colour and less distinctive. Since the 1960s, serins have been recorded yearly in the UK in small numbers and have bred sporadically since the 1970s (in Devon, Dorset, Sussex, East Anglia and the Jersey) but no more than one or two pairs a year.