The redpolls (genus ''Acanthis'') (in Great Britain also historically known as redpoles) are a group of small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s in the

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 ...

family Fringillidae, which have characteristic red markings on their heads. They are placed in the genus ''Acanthis''. The genus name ''Acanthis'' is from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''akanthis'', a name for a small now-unidentifiable bird. All redpolls are northern breeding woodland species, associated with birch trees (although there are introduced populations in the southern hemisphere, in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and nearby subantarctic islands). They are small birds, brown or grey-brown above and with a red forehead patch. The adult male's breast is washed in red, but in females and young birds the buff breast and white belly are streaked with brown. The bill is small and yellow. Some birds, particularly young ones, are difficult to assign to species. They are primarily seed-eaters, and often feed acrobatically like a tit; their diet may include some insects in summer. They have a dry reeling song and a metallic call. They lay four to seven eggs in a nest in a tree or, in the case of the Arctic redpoll, a large bush. They can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with other finches.

Taxonomy

The taxonomy of redpolls is unsettled, with several different very closely related forms of redpolls which have been considered as anything from one to five species. Some studies favour three species, but this is certainly not definite. Global lists currently support either two species (the common and hoary redpoll) or a single species (the common redpoll). Most recently, genomewide analyses found differences in

gene expression Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product that enables it to produce end products, protein or non-coding RNA, and ultimately affect a phenotype, as the final effect. The ...

but no genetic divergence, suggesting that plumage forms have originated recently, within a single interbreeding lineage, and do not represent species boundaries.

Species

The species are:

References

External links

Common redpoll species account
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology

- USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter {{Taxonbar, from=Q2822501 Birds of Canada Birds of North America Birds of Europe Tortonian first appearances

Taxonomy

Species

References

Further reading

External links