Thetrue finches are small to medium-sizedpasserinebirds in thefamilyFringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do notmigrate. They have a worldwide native distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fiftygenera. It includes thecanaries,siskins,redpolls,serins,grosbeaks andeuphonias, as well as the morphologically divergentHawaiian honeycreepers.
Finches and canaries were used in the UK, US and Canada in thecoal mining industry to detectcarbon monoxide from the eighteenth to twentieth century. This practice ceased in the UK in 1986.[2]
The name Fringillidae for the finchfamily was introduced in 1819 by the EnglishzoologistWilliam Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of theBritish Museum.[3][4] The taxonomy of the family, in particular the cardueline finches, has a long and complicated history. The study of the relationship between thetaxa has been confounded by the recurrence of similar morphologies due to theconvergence of species occupying similar niches.[5] In 1968 the American ornithologistRaymond 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 onmitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences resulted in substantial revisions in the taxonomy. Several groups of birds that had previously been assigned to other families were found to be related to the finches. TheNeotropicalEuphonia and theChlorophonia were formerly placed in the tanager familyThraupidae due to their similar appearance but analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences revealed that both genera were more closely related to the finches. They are now placed in a separate subfamily Euphoniinae within the Fringillidae.[7][8] TheHawaiian honeycreepers were at one time placed in their own family, Drepanididae but were found to be closely related to theCarpodacus rosefinches and are now placed within the Carduelinae subfamily.[5] The three largest genera,Carpodacus,Carduelis andSerinus were found to bepolyphyletic.[5][9][10] Each was split intomonophyletic genera. The American rosefinches were moved fromCarpodacus toHaemorhous.Carduelis was split by moving the greenfinches toChloris and a large clade intoSpinus leaving just three species in the original genus. Thirty seven species were moved fromSerinus toCrithagra leaving eight species in the original genus.[8] Today the family Fringillidae is divided into threesubfamilies, theFringillinae containing a singlegenus with the chaffinches, theCarduelinae containing 183 species divided into 49 genera, and theEuphoniinae containing theEuphonia and theChlorophonia.[5]
AlthoughPrzewalski's "rosefinch" (Urocynchramus pylzowi) has tenprimary flight feathers rather than the nine primaries of other finches, it was sometimes classified in the Carduelinae. It is now assigned to a distinct family, Urocynchramidae, monotypic as to genus and species, and with no particularly close relatives among thePasseroidea.[8][11]
Cladogram based on the analysis by Zuccon and colleagues published in 2012,[5] Hawaiian honeycreeper phylogeny based on Lerner and colleagues, 2011[12] and Pratt (2014).[13] Genera or clades with question marks (?) are of controversial or uncertain taxonomic placement. The rosefinches genusCarpodacus is expanded to include thecommon rosefinch as suggested by Tietze and colleagues[14] and adopted by theInternational Ornithological Committee.[8]
The smallest "classical" true finches are theAndean siskin (Spinus spinescens) at as little as 9.5 cm (3.8 in) and thelesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) at as little as 8 g (0.28 oz). The largest species is probably thecollared grosbeak (Mycerobas affinis) at up to 24 cm (9.4 in) and 83 g (2.9 oz), although larger lengths, to 25.5 cm (10.0 in) in thepine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator), and weights, to 86.1 g (3.04 oz) in theevening grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina), have been recorded in species which are slightly smaller on average.[18][19] They typically have strong, stubbybeaks, which in some species can be quite large; however,Hawaiian honeycreepers are famous for the wide range of bill shapes and sizes brought about byadaptive radiation. All true finches have 9 primaryremiges and 12rectrices. The basicplumage colour is brownish, sometimes greenish; many have considerable amounts of black, while white plumage is generally absent except as wing-bars or other signalling marks. Bright yellow and redcarotenoidpigments are commonplace in this family, and thus bluestructural colours are rather rare, as the yellow pigments turn the blue color into green. Many, but by no means all true finches have strongsexual dichromatism, the females typically lacking the bright carotenoid markings of males.[1]
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 widelyintroduced in Australia and New Zealand.
Finches are typically inhabitants of well-wooded areas, but some can be found on mountains or even indeserts.
The finches are primarilygranivorous, buteuphoniines include considerable amounts ofarthropods andberries in their diet, and Hawaiian honeycreepersevolved to utilize a wide range of food sources, includingnectar. The diet of Fringillidaenestlings includes a varying amount of small arthropods. True finches have a bouncing flight like most smallpasserines, alternating bouts of flapping with gliding on closed wings. Most sing well and several are commonly seencagebirds; foremost among these is thedomesticatedcanary (Serinus canaria domestica). The nests are basket-shaped and usually built in trees, more rarely in bushes, between rocks or on similar substrate.[1]
The family Fringillidae contains 235 species divided into 50 genera and three subfamilies. The subfamilyCarduelinae includes 18 extinct Hawaiian honeycreepers and the extinctBonin grosbeak.[8] SeeList of Fringillidae species for further details.
Subfamily Fringillinae
Fringilla – 5 species of chaffinch, 2 species of blue chaffinch, and thebrambling
^Leach, William Elford (1819)."Eleventh Room".Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum (15th ed.). London: British Museum. pp. 63–68 [65]. Archived fromthe original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved1 October 2024. Although the name of the author is not specified in the document, Leach was the Keeper of Zoology at the time.
^abcdeGill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.)."Finches, euphonias".World Bird List Version 5.3. International Ornithologists' Union.Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved23 July 2015.
_-_Macho_(14010810322).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
%2c_M._A._Pe%25C3%25B1a.jpg)
.jpg)
_(13667564073).jpg)
.jpg)
