From Opus

Alternative name: Eurasian Linnet

Photo by Andy Bright
Suffolk, U.K.

Carduelis cannabina

[edit] Identification

It is a slim bird with a long tail

• Brown mantle and back
• Off-white throat
• Grey bill
• Silvery edge to primaries
  

Breeding Male

• Red breast
• Red forehead
• Grey nape
  

Females and young birds lack the red, streaked breasts and white underparts.

Female
Photo by jtwood
East Lothian, Scotland

[edit] Distribution

Widespread and generally common over much of the Region. Breeds throughout the British Isles and from western France and Iberia east to the Urals reaching north to southern Norway, southern and eastern Sweden and central and southern Finland. In the south occurs on Madeira and the Canary Islands, North-West Africa and most larger Mediterranean islands, Greece, Turkey and the Caucasus and the Middle East.

Northern and eastern birds are migratory, leaving breeding areas in September-October to winter chiefly within range of southern breeders and along coast of North Africa, returning in late March-April, those elsewhere partial migrants or resident.

Vagrants recorded north to Iceland and Lapland and south-east to Kuwait.

[edit] Taxonomy

Sometimes placed in genus Linaria.

[edit] Subspecies

There are 7 subspecies^[1]:

• C. c. autochthona:

• Scotland

• C. c. nana:

• Madeira

• C. c. meadewaldoi:

• Tenerife (western Canary Islands)

• C. c. harterti: paler above and whiter on flanks

• Lanzarote (eastern Canary Islands)

• C. c. mediterranea:

• Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to Asia Minor

• C. c. cannabina:

• Europe to western Siberia, Crimean Peninsula and North Africa

• C. c. bella: paler above with very pale rump and pale grey crown and nape in male.

• Asia Minor to Caucasus, Afghanistan, south-western China; winters to India

C.c. Nana is not recognised by all authorities^[2]

[edit] Habitat

Open habitats with low shrubs and scattered trees, often on moorland and heathland, along woodland edges, hedgerows and orchards, sometimes in large gardens. Eastern race, bella on rocky and scrub-covered mountain slopes.

In winter forms large flocks often with other finches and feeds on stubble fields and other cultivated areas, along shorelines and on waste ground.

[edit] Behaviour

During the winter can form large flocks mixed with other finches and Twite.

[edit] Diet

Its food mainly consists of seeds.

[edit] Vocalisation

Song: a musical twitter.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2010. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2010. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.5.xls/view
2. Avibase
3. Collins Field Guide 5th Edition ISBN 0 00 219900 9
4. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links

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