The Chinese grosbeak or yellow-billed grosbeak (''Eophona migratoria'') is a species of

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

in the family

Fringillidae The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usu ...

Taxonomy

Subspecies include: Avibase
* ''Eophona migratoria migratoria'' (Eastern

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym "Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East ( Outer ...

and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republi ...

); * ''Eophona migratoria sowerbyi''( East-central China)

Distribution and habitat

This species is present in

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...

, China,

and

. It occurs in forests , mixed woods and bamboo forests of hilly and mountainous areas: it does not fear humans and also goes into gardens and orchards.

Description

''Eophona migratoria'' measures between eighteen and twenty centimeters in length, for a wingspan of 23–24 cm and a weight of 55-60 g. The appearance is massive, as is typical of the finches, with a large head. The beak is very strong and conical. The beak color is yellow (hence the common name of "yellow-billed grosbeak") with a black tip. The body is of a uniform gray color, darker on the back and wings and lighter and tending to silver on the belly, with accentuated brown shades on the sides. The wings are black with a rounded white spot on the tip. The tail is black, the legs of pale flesh color and the eyes are brown. Sexual dimorphism is present. The head mask is gray in the female and not black as in the male.

Biology

''Eophona migratoria'' breeds in temperate

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s and winters in southern parts of China and Japan,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

and northern

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

.The nest is cup-shaped and is built by the female among the trees, in the thickest vegetation: inside it usually lays 4 bluish eggs with brown spots, which it hatches alone (with the male who provides it with food) to 12-13 days. The young are fed by both parents and are able to fly around at 12-14 days of age, however they tend to stay with their parents for another 2-3 weeks. Outside the breeding season, this bird tends to live in small groups of about ten individuals, which move among the trees in search of food, rarely going down to the ground. These birds are granivorous, mainly feeding on seeds that they break without problems thanks to the strong and robust beak:. They can feed without problems on other material of vegetable origin (sprouts, berries, fruit), while it is rare to observe them eating food of animal origin (mainly insects).

Gallery

File: Fringillidae - Eophona migratoria.JPG, ''Eophona migratoria''. Male File: BirdsAsiaJohnGoVGoul 0084.jpg, Illustration of Gould, John, 1804-1881 in Birds of Asia File:Eophona migratoria MHNT 227 Tibet HdB.jpg, Eggs of ''Eophona migratoria''

Bibliography

*Horst Bielfeld: Zeisige, Girlitze, Gimpel und Kernbeißer. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8001-3675-9. *Melville, D. S. (1992). Feeding of Black-tailed Hawfinch. Hong Kong Bird Report 1992: 192-193. *Ottaviani, M. (2008) Monographie des Fringilles (fringillinés – carduélinés) – Histoire Naturelle et photographies, Volume 1. Editions Prin, Ingré, France, 488 p. * This article has been expanded using, inter alia, material based on a translation of an article from the Italian Wikipedia, by the same name.

External links

Images at ADW

Biolib

References

Chinese grosbeak Birds of China Birds of Korea Birds of Manchuria Chinese grosbeak Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Fringillidae-stub