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Fringilla

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Fringilla
Male Eurasian chaffinch
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Subfamily: Fringillinae
Leach, 1820
Genus: Fringilla
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Fringilla coelebs
Species

The genus Fringilla is a small group of eight species of finches from the Old World. It is the only genus in the subfamily Fringillinae.

Taxonomy

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The genus Fringilla was described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.[1] The genus name Fringilla is Latin for "finch".[2] Linnaeus included 30 species in the genus (Fringilla zena was listed twice) and of these the Eurasian chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) is considered as the type species.[3]

Species

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By the early 20th century, the genus was considered to include just three species, with the other species included by Linnaeus transferred to other genera. In 2016, it was proposed that the extremely rare Gran Canaria blue chaffinch subspecies F. teydea polatzeki be treated as a separate species, thus accepting a fourth species, F. polatzeki.[4][5]

A major genetic, morphological, and behavioural study in 2021 then divided the former common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs sensu lato) into five species,[6] so the genus is now accepted as containing eight species:[7]

Image Scientific name Common name Distribution
Fringilla coelebs Eurasian chaffinch Europe, across Asia to western Siberia; migrating south in winter to north Africa and northern India
Fringilla spodiogenys African chaffinch Northwestern Africa; nonmigratory
Fringilla moreletti Azores chaffinch Azores; nonmigratory
Fringilla maderensis Madeiran chaffinch Madeira; nonmigratory
Fringilla canariensis Canary Islands chaffinch Canary Islands; nonmigratory
Fringilla polatzeki Gran Canaria blue chaffinch Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands; nonmigratory
Fringilla teydea Tenerife blue chaffinch Tenerife in the Canary Islands; nonmigratory
Fringilla montifringilla Brambling Northeastern Europe and northern Asia, migrating west and south in winter to western Europe, north Africa, northern India, northern Pakistan, China, and Japan

The Eurasian chaffinch is found primarily in forest habitats, in Europe and western Asia; the other species formerly treated as subspecies of it occur in North Africa and Macaronesia; the blue chaffinches are island endemics; and the brambling breeds in the northern taiga and southern tundra of Eurasia.[8]

The eight species are all broadly similar size, 14–18 centimetres (5.5–7.1 in) in length, with brambling the smallest, and Tenerife blue chaffinch the largest; they are all similar in shape.[9][8] They have a bouncing flight with alternating bouts of flapping and gliding on closed wings.[10] They are not as specialised as other finches, eating both insects and seeds. While breeding, they feed their young on insects rather than seeds, unlike other finches.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 179.
  2. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London, United Kingdom: Christopher Helm. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 203.
  4. ^ Sangster, G.; Rodríguez-Godoy, F.; Roselaar, C.S.; Robb, M.S.; Luksenburg, J.A. (2016). "Integrative taxonomy reveals Europe's rarest songbird species, the Gran Canaria blue chaffinch Fringilla polatzeki". Journal of Avian Biology. 47 (2): 159–166. doi:10.1111/jav.00825.
  5. ^ "The Rarest Songbird in Europe". Wildlife Articles. Archived from the original on 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  6. ^ Recuerda, María; Illera, Juan Carlos; Blanco, Guillermo; Zardoya, Rafael; Milá, Borja (2021). "Sequential colonization of oceanic archipelagos led to a species-level radiation in the common chaffinch complex (Aves: Fringilla coelebs)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 164: 107291. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107291.
  7. ^ "Finches, euphonias, longspurs, Thrush-tanager". IOC World Bird List – Version 14.2. 2025-02-20. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
  8. ^ a b c Newton, Ian (1973). Finches. New Naturalist 55. New York: Taplinger. pp. 19–30. ISBN 0-8008-2720-1.
  9. ^ Shirihai, Hadoram; Svensson, Lars (2019). Handbook of Western Palearctic birds. volume 2: Passerines: flycatchers to buntings. London Oxford New York New Delhi Sydney: Helm. pp. 353–363. ISBN 978-1-4729-3737-7.
  10. ^ Clement, Peter; Harris, Alan; Davis, John (1993). Finches and Sparrows. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03424-9.
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