WINTER BACKYARD BIRDS (U.S. AND CANADA)

Common Redpoll 

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Acanthis Flammea

Males have grayish-white rump, tinged in pink, gray-brown with dark center uppertail-coverts, dark gray with narrow buffy-white edged tail.

Females resemble the males but lack the red on face, breast and rump.

Juveniles resemble the females but they are paler and lack the red color on crown, pink on plumage with heavier streaking on their underparts.

BILL: dark-tipped yellowish and cone-shaped.

SIZE: small, measuring between 4.5 - 5.5 inches in length.

WEIGHT: weighing between 12 - 16 grams.

COLOR: brownish-gray, black, bright red, pink, white and buff.

Seeds, buds, catkins, and insects.

Brushy areas, such as forest clearings, forest edges, thickets of dwarf birch or willow, and shrubby areas on the tundra (for breeding), and semi-open habitats (during winter).

SUMMER - Northern Canada and Alaska up through the Arctic Circle.

WINTER - United States.  

Calls: “djek-djek-djek”, ringing “tsooeet” rising at the end, and often accompanied by twittering. The alarm call is an explosive “chek” or “tek”.

Songs: during territorial behaviour is a series of “teu-teu-teu-teu” followed by dry or buzzy “trrrrrreeeee”. A shorter “tirr” or “serrrrr” is given in flight or from perch, and during aggressive encounters, the male gives loud, harsh “chak”.

NEST: cup-shaped nest made of grass, fine twigs and moss, and the cup is lined with feathers, plant down and animal hair (female builds the nest but the male sometimes collects the materials).

EGGS: 4 - 6 pale green eggs with fine darker spots and lines.

INCUBATION: 11 - 12 days, female fed by the male.

Forages at all levels of vegetation, and very sociable, usually foraging in flocks outside of the nesting season.

The oldest known Common Redpoll was at least 7 years, 10 months old.

REFERENCES: https://en.wikipedia.org

                         https://www.sdakotabirds.com

                         http://www.oiseaux-birds.com