From Opus

Photo by Doug Lloyd.
Photo taken: Alaska.

Carduelis flammea

[edit] Identification

• Streaky finch with pale feather edges
• Red forehead and crown
• Black lores and chin
• Dark eye line
• Pale supercilium
• Cheeks darker gray than the rest of the head and nape
• Two wing bars
• Grey flight and tail feathers with buff-colored edges
• Pale rump streaked with gray
• Whitish breast, flanks, and belly
• Variable amount of streaking on the breast and flanks
• Males have a variable amount of rose wash across the upper breast that is absent in females
• Sharply pointed yellow bill with a black tip and culmen

[edit] Distribution

Breeds in the northern parts of the New and Old Worlds. Winter range extends farther south, but is not very predictable. An irruptive species, this bird can be abundant in places some winters and completely absent in other winters. Birds ringed in Norway have been recovered in China just north of the border of North Korea, a 4000 km away from Troms County.

[edit] Taxonomy

Carduelis flammea has four subspecies:^[1]

• C. f. flammea

• Northern Eurasia and northern North America

• C. f. rostrata

• Northern Labrador, Baffin Island and southern Greenland; winters to north-eastern USA and British Isles

• C. f. islandica

• Iceland

• C. f. cabaret

• British Isles, Alps and mountains of Czechoslovakia
• Some authorities regard this a separate species, the Lesser Redpoll.

[edit] Habitat

Coniferous and birch woodlands.

[edit] Behaviour

The diet includes small seeds.

It builds an open cup nest from twigs, rootlets and grasses, lined with thick layer of feathers or hair. 4-6 greenish white to pale blue, spotted with purple at large end, eggs are laid.

[edit] Vocalisation

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. All About Birds

• List of references

[edit] External Links