Finch

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Fringillidae
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Finch
Eurasian bullfinch (female above, male below)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Superfamily: Passeroidea
Family: Fringillidae
Leach, 1819
Type genus
Fringilla
Linnaeus, 1758
Subfamilies

The true finches are small to medium-sized

serins, grosbeaks and euphonias, as well as the morphologically divergent Hawaiian honeycreepers
.

Many birds in other families are also commonly called "finches". These groups include the

Finches and canaries were used in the UK, US and Canada in the coal mining industry to detect carbon monoxide from the eighteenth to twentieth century. This practice ceased in the UK in 1986.[2]

Systematics and taxonomy

The name Fringillidae for the finch

Raymond Andrew Paynter, Jr.
wrote:

Limits of the genera and relationships among the species are less understood – and subject to more controversy – in the carduelines than in any other species of passerines, with the possible exception of the estrildines [waxbills].[6]

Beginning around 1990 a series of phylogenetic studies based on

Fringillinae containing a single genus with the chaffinches, the Carduelinae containing 183 species divided into 49 genera, and the Euphoniinae containing the Euphonia and the Chlorophonia.[5]

Euphonias, like this thick-billed euphonia, were once treated as tanagers instead of finches.

Although

Passeroidea.[8][11]

Finch phylogeny
Fringillinae

Fringilla chaffinches

Euphoniinae

Chlorophonia, chlorophonias and some euphonias

Euphonia true euphonias

Carduelinae

Mycerobas Asian grosbeaks

Hesperiphona American grosbeaks

Coccothraustes
hawfinch

Eophona Oriental grosbeaks

Carpodacus
Eurasian rosefinches

Hawaiian

Melamprosops
the extinct poʻouli

?

Oreomystis
ʻakikiki

ʻalauahios and the extinct kākāwahie

?

Dysmorodrepanis
the extinct Lanai hookbill

Psittirostra
the possibly extinct ʻōʻū

?

Chloridops the extinct Hawaiian grosbeaks

Loxioides palila

?

Rhodacanthis the extinct koa-finches

Telespiza Laysan & Nihoa finches

Ciridops the extinct ʻula-ʻai-hāwane

ʻiʻiwi and the extinct mamos

ʻapapane and the extinct Laysan honeycreeper

Palmeria
ʻākohekohe

Pseudonestor
Maui parrotbill or kiwikiu

?

Akialoa the extinct ʻakialoas

nukupuʻus

Magumma
ʻanianiau

?

Viridonia
the extinct greater ʻamakihi (could fall anywhere within this clade)

Chlorodrepanis lesser ʻamakihis

ʻalawī

honeycreepers

Pinicola
pine grosbeak

Pyrrhula bullfinches

Bucanetes trumpeter and Mongolian finch

Rhodopechys crimson-winged finches

Leucosticte
mountain finches

Procarduelis
dark-breasted rosefinch

Agraphospiza
Blanford's rosefinch

Callacanthis
spectacled finch

Pyrrhoplectes
golden-naped finch

Haemorhous
North American rosefinches

Chloris
greenfinches

Rhodospiza
desert finch

Rhynchostruthus
golden-winged grosbeaks

Crithagra African canaries, serins and siskins

Linurgus
oriole finch

Linaria twite and linnets

Acanthis redpolls

Loxia
crossbills

Serinus European serin, Atlantic canary, etc

Spinus American siskins & goldfinches, Eurasian siskin and Tibetan serin

Cladogram based on the analysis by Zuccon and colleagues published in 2012,
International Ornithological Committee.[8]

Fossil record

genera at least. Like the other Passeroidea families, the true finches seem to be of roughly Middle Miocene origin, around 20 to 10 million years ago (Ma). An unidentifable finch fossil from the Messinian age, around 12 to 7.3 million years ago (Ma) during the Late Miocene subepoch, has been found at Polgárdi in Hungary.[15][16][17]

Description

The smallest "classical" true finches are the

sexual dichromatism, the females typically lacking the bright carotenoid markings of males.[1]

Distribution and habitat

American goldfinch (Spinus tristis) male (left) and female (right) in Johnston County, North Carolina, USA

The finches have a near-global distribution, being found across the Americas, Eurasia and Africa, as well as some island groups such as the Hawaiian islands. They are absent from Australasia, Antarctica, the Southern Pacific and the islands of the Indian Ocean, although some European species have been widely introduced in Australia and New Zealand.

Finches are typically inhabitants of well-wooded areas, but some can be found on mountains or even in deserts.

Behaviour

The finches are primarily

canary (Serinus canaria domestica). The nests are basket-shaped and usually built in trees, more rarely in bushes, between rocks or on similar substrate.[1]

List of genera

The family Fringillidae contains 235 species divided into 50 genera and three subfamilies. The subfamily

List of Fringillidae species
for further details.

Subfamily Fringillinae

Subfamily Carduelinae

Subfamily Euphoniinae

  • Euphonia – 27 species all with euphonia in their English name
  • Chlorophonia – 5 species all with chlorophonia in their English name

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Newton (1973), Clement et al. (1993)
  2. ^ Eschener, Kat (30 December 2016). "The Story of the Real Canary in the Coal Mine". Smithsonian. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  3. ^ Leach, William Elford (1819). "Eleventh Room". Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum (15th ed.). London: British Museum. pp. 63–68 [65]. Although the name of the author is not specified in the document, Leach was the Keeper of Zoology at the time.
  4. .
  5. ^ (PDF) from the original on 2015-06-10.
  6. ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jnr., ed. (1968). Check-list of birds of the world, Volume 14. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 207. Archived from the original on 2015-07-15.
  7. S2CID 86031929
    .
  8. ^ a b c d e Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Finches, euphonias". World Bird List Version 5.3. International Ornithologists' Union. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  9. S2CID 6241573
    .
  10. .
  11. from the original on 2014-02-25.
  12. .
  13. ^ "A consensus taxonomy for the Hawaiian honeycreepers » Malama Mauna Kea Library Catalog" (PDF). lsu.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  14. .
  15. ^ Hír et al. (2001), Mlíkovský (2002)
  16. S2CID 8771417. Archived from the original
    on 2013-07-03. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  17. on 2012-09-02.
  18. .
  19. .

Sources

External links