The twite (''Linaria flavirostris'') is a small brown passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is similar in size and shape to a

linnet The common linnet (''Linaria cannabina'') is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae. It derives its common name and the scientific name, ''Linaria'', from its fondness for hemp seeds and flax seeds—flax being the English ...

, at long. It lacks the red head patch and breast shown by the linnet and the

redpoll The redpolls (genus ''Acanthis'') (in Great Britain also historically known as redpoles) are a group of small passerine birds in the finch family Fringillidae, which have characteristic red markings on their heads. They are placed in the genus ' ...

s. It is brown streaked with black above, and a pink rump. The underparts are buff to whitish, streaked with brown. The conical bill is yellow in winter and grey in summer. The call is a distinctive ''twit'', from which its name derives, and the song contains fast trills and twitters. Twites can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with other finches on coasts and salt marshes. They feed mainly on seeds. The twite breeds in northern Europe and across the Palearctic to Siberia and China. Treeless moorland is favoured for breeding. It builds its

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materia ...

in a bush, laying 5–6 light blue

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

. It is partially resident, but many birds migrate further south, or move to the coasts. It has declined sharply in parts of its range, notably in Ireland. In the UK, the twite is the subject of several research projects in the Pennines, the Scottish Highlands and on the North Wales and Lancashire coastlines. Records show that the birds to the east of the Pennine hills move to the southeast coast in winter and those to the west winter between Lancashire and the Hebrides. The Welsh population winters almost exclusively in Flintshire. Ringing data has revealed that twite breeding in different parts of Britain use different non‐breeding areas, and that non-breeding areas of British twite do not overlap with non-breeding areas of continental twite.

Taxonomy

In 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the twite in the 10th edition of his '' Systema Naturae'' under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Fringilla flavirostris''. The genus name ''linaria'' is the Latin for a linen-weaver, from ''linum'', "

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

" and ''flavirostris'' means "yellow-billed". The twite and the closely related

s were at one time placed in the genus ''Carduelis'' but were moved to a separate genus '' Linaria'' based on a

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. There are 10 recognised subspecies: *''L. f. bensonorum'' ( Meinertzhagen, R, 1934) - Outer Hebrides (western Scotland) (sometimes included in ''pipilans'') *''L. f. pipilans'' ( Latham, 1787) - northern Ireland and northern Britain *''L. f. flavirostris'' ( Linnaeus,

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the starting point of modern zoological ...

) - northern Scandinavia and northwestern Russia *''L. f. brevirostris'' ( Bonaparte, 1855) - Turkey, the Caucasus and northern Iran *''L. f. kirghizorum'' ( Sushkin, 1925) - northern and central Kazakhstan *''L. f. korejevi'' ( Zarudny & Harms, 1914) - northeastern Kazakhstan to northwestern China *''L. f. altaica'' ( Sushkin, 1925) - southwestern Siberia, northern and western Mongolia *''L. f. montanella'' ( Hume, 1873) - Kyrgyzstan to western China *''L. f. pamirensis'' (Zarudny & Harms, 1914) - Tajikistan, northern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan (sometimes included in ''montanella'') *''L. f. miniakensis'' ( Jacobi, A, 1923) - eastern Tibet and western China *''L. f. rufostrigata'' (Walton, 1905) - western and southern Tibet, northern India and northern Nepal

References

Works cited

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External links

Oiseaux
Photos
Audio recordings from Xeno-canto
{{Taxonbar, from=Q10965357 Birds described in 1758 Birds of Eurasia Birds of Europe Birds of Norway Linaria (bird) Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus