Lesser goldfinch

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Lesser goldfinch
Male
Female
both S. p. hesperophilus

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Subfamily: Carduelinae
Genus: Spinus
Species:
S. psaltria
Binomial name
Spinus psaltria
(Say, 1822)
Subspecies

see text

Synonyms

Fringilla psaltria (

protonym
)
Carduelis psaltria
Astragalinus psaltria

The lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) is a very small

Spinus
.

As is the case for all three New World goldfinches (and some of their siskin relatives), lesser goldfinch males have a black forehead, which females lack. Males in this species vary strikingly in back color across their range, from green in western North America to black from Texas south to South America. Five subspecies are often recognized.

Taxonomy

The lesser goldfinch was

Spinus that was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch.[5][6]

Five subspecies are recognised:[6]

Description

This petite species is not only the smallest

cline in size, with the largest birds from Mexico and further south being up to one-fifth larger than the smallest from the extreme northwest of its range; this effect is more pronounced in females. There is also considerable variation in the amount of black on the head and back in males and thus five subspecies have been proposed. But this variation, too, seems to be simple and clinal changes in allele frequency and thus the "subspecies" might be better considered colour morphs or geographic forms.[12]


Males are easily recognized by their bright yellow underparts and big white patches in the tail (outer rectrices) and on the wings (the base of the primaries). They range from having solid black from the back to the upper head including the ear-coverts to having these regions medium green; each of the back, crown and ear regions varies in darkness rather independently though; as a rule, the ears are not darker than the rest. In most of the range, dark birds termed psaltria (the Arkansas black-backed goldfinch) predominate. The light birds are termed hesperophilus (the green-backed goldfinch) and are most common in the far western U.S. and northwestern Mexico.[12]

The zone in which both light and dark males occur on a regular basis is broadest in the north and extends across the width of the

Pacific Coast in southern Sonora to northern Sinaloa, roughly between the area of Ciudad Obregón to Culiacán. In the United States, the most diverse array of phenotypes can be found in Colorado and New Mexico. East of the 106th meridian west in southwestern Texas, as well as in most of Mexico, almost all males have black backs. S. p. colombianus, found east and south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is a richer yellow below in males. This subspecies, as well as the even yellower S. p. jouyi from the Yucatán Peninsula and adjacent regions of Mexico and S. p. witti from the Tres Marías Islands off Nayarit[13] require more study, especially since at least the former two also seem to be significantly larger and longer-billed.[12]

Females' and immatures' upperparts are more or less grayish olive-green; their underparts are yellowish, buffier in immatures. They have only a narrow strip of white on the wings (with other white markings in some forms) and little or no white on the tail. They are best distinguished from other members of the genus by the combination of small size, upperparts without white or yellow, and dark gray bill. In all plumages, this bird can easily be taken for a New World warbler if the typical finch bill is not seen well.

Like other goldfinches, it has an undulating flight in which it frequently gives a call: in this case, a harsh chig chig chig.[14] Another distinctive call is a very high-pitched, drawn-out whistle, often rising from one level pitch to another (teeeyeee) or falling (teeeyooo). The song is a prolonged warble or twitter, more phrased than that of the American goldfinch,[15] often incorporating imitations of other species.

Distribution and habitat

This American goldfinch ranges from the southwestern United States (near the coast, as far north as extreme southwestern Washington) to Venezuela and Peru. It migrates from the colder parts of its U.S. range.

The lesser goldfinch often occurs in flocks or at least loose associations. It utilizes almost any

geophagy has been observed in this species.[16]

The nesting season is in summer in the temperate parts of its range; in the tropics it apparently breeds all-year round, perhaps less often in September and October.[17] It lays three or four bluish white eggs in a cup nest made of fine plant materials such as lichens, rootlets, and strips of bark, placed in a bush or at low or middle levels in a tree.

The

remiges than females when moulting into adult plumage. East of the 106th meridian west, birds moult strongly before breeding and replace another quantity of feathers afterwards, and post-juvenal moult does not differ significantly between the sexes. However, this seems dependent on the differing rainfall regimes; simply put, birds at least anywhere in the North American range moult most of their plumage at the end of the dry season and may replace more feathers at the end of the wet season.[12]

Considered a Species of Least Concern by the

IUCN due to its vast range, it nonetheless seems to be declining locally. For example, it is rare in the Ecuadorean Andes foothills.[17]

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22720410A132139491.en
    . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. doi:10.3366/E0260954109001636
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  4. ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 246–247.
  5. ^ Koch, Carl Ludwig (1816). System der baierischen Zoologie, Volume 1 (in German). Nürnberg. p. 232.
  6. ^
    Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (2020). "Finches, euphonias"
    . IOC World Bird List Version 10.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  7. ^ Peterson et al. (1990), Sibley (2000)
  8. ^ Hilty, Steven L., Birds of Venezuela, 2002, Princeton University Press
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-0691048789
    .
  10. ^ Birds of the World blog
  11. ISBN 978-0-8493-4258-5
    .
  12. ^ a b c d Willoughby (2007)
  13. ^ Quatro (2007)
  14. ^ Sibley (2000)
  15. ^ Peterson et al. (1990)
  16. ^ Delgado-V. (2006)
  17. ^ a b Cisneros-Heredia (2006)

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spinus psaltria.
Wikispecies has information related to Carduelis psaltria.
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