Lesser Redpoll
Encyclopedia
The Lesser Redpoll is a small passerine
bird
belonging to the genus Carduelis
in the finch
family, Fringillidae. It is the smallest, brownest and most streaked of the redpoll
s. It is often classified as a subspecies
of the Common Redpoll
(Carduelis flammea) but has recently been split from that species by several authorities such as the British Ornithologists' Union
. It is native to Europe
and has been introduced
to New Zealand
. Many birds migrate
further south in winter, but the mild climate means that it can be found all year round in much of its range, and may be joined by the other two redpoll species in winter.
, apparently without significant interbreeding though sympatry
was established too recently to draw firm conclusions.
is short, conical and sharply pointed and is pale yellow with a dark tip. The adult male is largely brown above with darker streaks. It has a red forehead, a black chin and, during the breeding season, pink on the breast and face. The flanks are buff with dark streaks and the belly and undertail-coverts are whitish. There are two pale bars on the wing. The adult female is similar but lacks the pink on the breast and face and has less streaking on the flanks. The juvenile
has a pale head with no red forehead and less black on the chin.
The commonest call is a harsh, metallic, staccato chuch-uch-uch-uch given in flight or while perched. It also has a plaintive alarm call. The trilling song
combines the flight call with a buzzing rattle and is often given in an undulating song-flight around the territory..
The Mealy Redpoll is similar to the Lesser Redpoll but larger and paler with whiter underparts. The upperparts are more buff and the rump is pale with dark streaks.
, Ireland
and the Alps
but its range has expanded considerably across central and northern Europe in recent decades. It is a widespread breeding bird in Britain and Ireland although absent from parts of southern and central England
. It nests along the North Sea
coast from north-east France
to Germany
and has spread into Denmark
, southern Norway
and south-west Sweden
. The Alpine population has increased and spread into neighbouring regions. The bird now nests as far east as southern Poland
, Slovakia
and northern Romania
.
It is a short-distance migrant
with many birds spending the winter within the breeding range. Alpine birds often move to lower elevations. In Britain, it becomes more widespread in lowland areas in winter. Some British birds move south to mainland Europe, occasionally reaching as far as Iberia
.
This species was first introduced to New Zealand in 1862 as part of shipment of birds to Nelson
. Several further introductions followed and it has become widely established. It is most common on the South Island
and at higher altitudes and has colonised many offshore islands. It has spread to the Australia
n territory of Macquarie Island
and has occurred as a vagrant to Lord Howe Island
.
It inhabits open woodland
, scrubland, farmland
and dune
s. Its spread has been aided by an increase in conifer plantations.
s becomes reduced. The diet is mostly composed of small seeds such as those of birch
, alder
and grass
es. Fruit
bud
s and invertebrate
s are also eaten.
Breeding pairs form in late winter. The breeding territory and several pairs will often nest close together in a loose colony. The cup-shaped nest
is built by the female, usually in a shrub or tree. It is made of twigs and plant stems with an inner layer of roots, grass, moss, leaves and other vegetation and a lining of feathers, wool and hair. Two to seven eggs
are laid. They are pale bluish or greenish with reddish or brownish blotches and streaks. The female incubates
the eggs for 12–15 days while being fed by the male. The young birds are fed by both parents and fledge
after 9–15 days.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
belonging to the genus Carduelis
Carduelis
The genus Carduelisis a large group of birds in the finch family Fringillidae. It includes the greenfinches, redpolls, goldfinches, linnets, the twite, and the non-African siskins...
in the finch
Finch
The true finches are passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. They are predominantly seed-eating songbirds. Most are native to the Northern Hemisphere, but one subfamily is endemic to the Neotropics, one to the Hawaiian Islands, and one subfamily – monotypic at genus level – is found...
family, Fringillidae. It is the smallest, brownest and most streaked of the redpoll
Redpoll
The Redpolls are a group of small passerine birds in the finch family Fringillidae which have characteristic red markings on their heads. They were formerly placed into the genus Acanthis together with the linnets and the twite, but their closest relatives are actually the crossbills, that are...
s. It is often classified as a subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
of the Common Redpoll
Common Redpoll
The Common Redpoll is a species in the finch family. It breeds somewhat further south than the Arctic Redpoll, also in habitats with thickets or shrubs. Nominate C. f. flammea breeds across the northern parts of North America and Eurasia. There is also an Icelandic subspecies, Icelandic Redpoll...
(Carduelis flammea) but has recently been split from that species by several authorities such as the British Ornithologists' Union
British Ornithologists' Union
The British Ornithologists' Union aims to encourage the study of birds in Britain, Europe and elsewhere, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation....
. It is native to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and has been introduced
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Many birds migrate
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
further south in winter, but the mild climate means that it can be found all year round in much of its range, and may be joined by the other two redpoll species in winter.
Taxonomy
The relationships among the redpolls are unresolved. The Lesser Redpoll co-occurs with the Mealy Redpoll (subspecies flammea of the Common Redpoll) in southern NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, apparently without significant interbreeding though sympatry
Sympatry
In biology, two species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus regularly encounter one another. An initially-interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sharing a common range exemplifies sympatric speciation...
was established too recently to draw firm conclusions.
Description
It is a small, short-tailed finch, 11.5 – long with a wingspan of 20 – and a weight of 9 –. The billBeak
The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...
is short, conical and sharply pointed and is pale yellow with a dark tip. The adult male is largely brown above with darker streaks. It has a red forehead, a black chin and, during the breeding season, pink on the breast and face. The flanks are buff with dark streaks and the belly and undertail-coverts are whitish. There are two pale bars on the wing. The adult female is similar but lacks the pink on the breast and face and has less streaking on the flanks. The juvenile
Juvenile (organism)
A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form, sexual maturity or size. Juveniles sometimes look very different from the adult form, particularly in terms of their colour...
has a pale head with no red forehead and less black on the chin.
The commonest call is a harsh, metallic, staccato chuch-uch-uch-uch given in flight or while perched. It also has a plaintive alarm call. The trilling song
Bird song
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.-Definition:The distinction between songs and calls is based upon...
combines the flight call with a buzzing rattle and is often given in an undulating song-flight around the territory..
The Mealy Redpoll is similar to the Lesser Redpoll but larger and paler with whiter underparts. The upperparts are more buff and the rump is pale with dark streaks.
Distribution and habitat
It was formerly almost restricted to Great BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
but its range has expanded considerably across central and northern Europe in recent decades. It is a widespread breeding bird in Britain and Ireland although absent from parts of southern and central England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It nests along the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
coast from north-east France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and has spread into Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, southern Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and south-west Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. The Alpine population has increased and spread into neighbouring regions. The bird now nests as far east as southern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and northern Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
.
It is a short-distance migrant
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
with many birds spending the winter within the breeding range. Alpine birds often move to lower elevations. In Britain, it becomes more widespread in lowland areas in winter. Some British birds move south to mainland Europe, occasionally reaching as far as Iberia
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
.
This species was first introduced to New Zealand in 1862 as part of shipment of birds to Nelson
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....
. Several further introductions followed and it has become widely established. It is most common on the South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
and at higher altitudes and has colonised many offshore islands. It has spread to the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n territory of Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world heritage...
and has occurred as a vagrant to Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...
.
It inhabits open woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
, scrubland, farmland
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
and dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
s. Its spread has been aided by an increase in conifer plantations.
Behaviour
It is a sociable bird which usually forages in flocks. It mainly feeds in trees but also feeds on the ground, especially in winter as the supply of seedSeed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s becomes reduced. The diet is mostly composed of small seeds such as those of birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
, alder
Alder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
and grass
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
es. Fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
bud
Bud
In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of the stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be specialized to develop flowers or short shoots, or may have...
s and invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s are also eaten.
Breeding pairs form in late winter. The breeding territory and several pairs will often nest close together in a loose colony. The cup-shaped nest
Bird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
is built by the female, usually in a shrub or tree. It is made of twigs and plant stems with an inner layer of roots, grass, moss, leaves and other vegetation and a lining of feathers, wool and hair. Two to seven eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
are laid. They are pale bluish or greenish with reddish or brownish blotches and streaks. The female incubates
Avian incubation
Incubation refers to the process by which certain oviparous animals hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period. Especially in domestic fowl, the act of...
the eggs for 12–15 days while being fed by the male. The young birds are fed by both parents and fledge
Fledge
Fledge is the stage in a young bird's life when the feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. It also describes the act of a chick's parents raising it to a fully grown state...
after 9–15 days.