Bird name:

Common Redpoll

Carduelis flammea

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Code 4

CORE

Code 6

CARFLA

ITIS

179230

Breeding Location:

Bushes, shrubs, and thickets

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester, Loose colonies

Breeding Population:

Fairly common

Egg Color:

Green or blue green with purple or red brown spots

Number of Eggs:

4 - 7

Incubation Days:

10 - 11

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Moss, feathers, plant material, and animal fur., Lined with twigs and grass.

Migration:

Nonmigratory

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General

Common Redpoll: Small finch with brown-streaked gray upperparts, bright rose-pink breast, and boldly streaked flanks and undertail coverts. Cap is red and chin is black. Bill is olive-brown with fine black tip. Wings are dark with two narrow white bars; tail is black and notched. Female is similar but lacks red on breast. Juvenile is browner than female, more extensively streaked, and may show faint red cap.

Range and Habitat

Common Redpoll: Breeds from Alaska and northern Quebec, south to British Columbia, Newfoundland, and Magdalen Islands. Spends winters irregularly south to California, Oklahoma, and the Carolinas; also found in Eurasia. Inhabits open subarctic areas, largely coniferous forests and scrub; avoids dense forests. Winters on brushy pastures, open thickets, and weedy fields.

Breeding and Nesting

Common Redpoll: Four to seven green or blue green eggs, with purple or red brown spots concentrated at larger end, are laid in a nest made of moss, feathers, plant material, and animal fur lined with twigs and grass, and hidden in dense low shrubs or rock crevices. Incubation ranges from 10 to 11 days and is carried out by the female. Young stay in nest 9 to14 days and are fed mostly by the female; have one or two broods per year.

Foraging and Feeding

Common Redpoll: Eats seeds and insects; forages chickadee-like, clinging to branch tips and weed tops for seeds, mainly from birches, alders, willows, and weeds. Also forages on the ground; reported to enter holes in snow to find food when vegetation is covered.

Readily Eats

Safflower, Apple Slices, Suet, Millet, Peanut Kernels, Fruit, Commercial Mixed Bird Seed

Vocalization

Common Redpole: During breeding season sings from perches or in flight. Song comprises single or repeated calls in short combinations: "chit-chit-chit-chit." Call is a plaintive, nasal, drawn-out whistle; rising in pitch, "swee-ee-eet."

Similar Species

Common Redpoll: Hoary Redpoll is paler and has smaller bill and faint streaks on rump, sides, and flanks. Hoary Redpoll breast is paler pink and restricted to sides.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Undertail coverts

Small feathers that cover the areas where the retrices (tail feathers) attach to the rump.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Cap

The area on top of the head of the bird.

Chin

The area of the face just below the bill.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America