Eurasian crimson-winged finch

Eurasian crimson-winged finch
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Genus: Rhodopechys
Species: R. sanguineus
Binomial name
Rhodopechys sanguineus
(Gould, 1838)

The Eurasian crimson-winged finch (Rhodopechys sanguineus) is a pale-colored thickset finch with a heavy, dull yellowish bill. It is found from Turkey to NE Pakistan. The African crimson-winged finch was formerly considered conspecific and together known as the crimson-winged finch.[2] It has an average length of 13 centimetres (5.1 in) and a wingspan of ca. 32 centimetres (13 in). It is light brown overall, with a whitish mid-belly, a black cap and a pinkish pattern on the wings and tail. The female is slightly duller than the male.

This species lives on rocky mountainsides, often at high elevation. It can be found in barren landscapes with little vegetation, and sometimes nests in rock crevices. It feeds on seeds, and during the winter descends in flocks to agricultural fields to find food. The female lays and incubates 4 or 5 blue, lightly speckled eggs.

Morphology

Eurasian crimson-winged finch in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Differences between African and Asian birds

There are several differences between Asian crimson-winged finches and African birds:

Male birds show the following additional differences:

References

  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Rhodopechys sanguineus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
  2. Kirwan, Guy M., Phil W. Atkinson, Arnoud B. van den Berg and Hadoram Shirihai (2006) Taxonomy of the Crimson-winged Finch Rhodopechys sanguineus: a test case for defining species limits between disjunct taxa Bulletin of the African Bird Club Vol. 13 No. 2 pages 136-46


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