- Acanthis flammea
Carduelis flammea
Includes: Lesser Redpoll
Identification
11.5-14 cm (4½-5½ in)
- 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
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, about 4000 km away from Troms County.
Taxonomy
Formerly placed in genus Carduelis.
Subspecies
There are four subspecies:[1]
- A. f. flammea
- Northern Eurasia and northern North America
- A. f. rostrata
- Northern Labrador, Baffin Island and southern Greenland; winters to north-eastern USA and British Isles
- A. f. islandica
- Iceland
- A. f. cabaret
- British Isles, Alps and mountains of Czechoslovakia - smaller and darker then other subspecies
- Some authorities regard this a separate species, the Lesser Redpoll.
Habitat
Coniferous and birch woodlands.
Behaviour
Diet
The diet includes small seeds.
Breeding
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.
Vocalisation
<flashmp3>Carduelis flammea (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2015. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2015, with updates to August 2015. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- All About Birds
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved March 2016)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Common Redpoll. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 5 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Common_Redpoll
External Links
