Finch

Finch, Heneage: see Nottingham, Heneage Finch, 1st earl of.

finch, common name for members of the Fringillidae, the largest family of birds (including over half the known species), found in most parts of the world except Australia. The true finches are characterized by their stout, conical bills, used to crack open the seeds that form the bulk of their diet. They are valued as destroyers of weed seeds; many also eat harmful insects. Since seeds, unlike insects, are not influenced by weather, many finches are year-round residents in colder areas.

The finches, which are considered the most highly developed of the birds, are widely diversified; they are classified into three groups: those with small, triangular bills, such as the canary, sparrow, bunting, towhee, junco, and those birds specifically named finch (e.g., chaffinch, bullfinch, and goldfinch); those with thick, rounded bills, as the grosbeak and cardinal; and the crossbills, rose-colored northern birds whose mandibles, as their name implies, cross over at the tips—an adaptation suited to their diet of conifer seeds.

The sparrows, genus Passer, which are field and hedge birds, are inconspicuously colored in dull grays and browns, but among the other, tree-perching finches, the male is often brightly plumaged (although the female is usually duller and sparrowlike). Most finches (except the meticulous goldfinch) build sloppy cup-shaped nests for their four to six speckled eggs.

Other species commonly called finches, especially many species kept as pets, are also found in other bird families. Estrildidae includes the grass, zebra, and parrot finches, waxbills, and munias, and Ploceidae includes the weaverbirds and whydahs.

Some Typical Finches

Goldfinches, genus Astragalinus, named for the bright yellow markings of the male, are found in Europe and North America. The common American goldfinch, A. tristis (thistle bird, wild canary, or yellow bird), is a year-round resident everywhere on the North American continent except in the far north. There are several Western species. The British goldfinch is cinnamon brown with black and yellow wings and a red face. Goldfinches are cheerful, musical birds, although the so-called goldfinches commonly kept as cage birds are finchlike members of the weaverbird family. The European bullfinch, with blue-gray plumage above and terra-cotta below, is often caged; it can be taught to mimic tunes. The chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs, also popular in Europe as a cage bird, is similarly marked but with a chestnut back and wings and tail. In North America the sparrowlike eastern purple finch, Carpodacus purpureus (actually rose-brown), has been largely driven out by the house sparrow. There are several purple finches in the West, where the house finch, or linnet, is common. The rosy finches are western mountain dwellers. The house finch, Carpodacus mexicanus, known for its lilting song, was introduced to the eastern states from the West in the 1940s. In the Midwest the dickcissel, which winters in Central and South America, is valued as a destroyer of grasshoppers. Several longspurs, genus Centrophanes, are found from the Great Plains northward; the Lapland longspur is a European finch that ranges to the NE United States. The redpolls, genus Aegiothus, are northern finches that winter in the N United States; with the pine siskins, goldfinches, and various other seedeaters they wander around the country in small flocks, often congregating at feeding stations. The grassquits, genus Phonipara, are native to the Bahamas and Cuba; the brambling, or mountain, finch is a N Eurasian bird that winters in the British Isles.

Classification

Finches are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Passeriformes, family Fringillidae.

Any of several hundred species of small, conical-billed, seed-eating songbirds (in several families), including the bunting, canary, cardinal, chaffinch, crossbill, Darwin's (Galapagos) finch, goldfinch, grass finch, grosbeak, sparrow, and weaver. Finches are small, compact birds 3–10 in. (10–27 cm) long. Most use their heavy bill to crack seeds; many also eat insects. Many finches are brightly coloured, often with shades of red and yellow. Found throughout the temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere and South America and in parts of Africa, finches are among the dominant birds in many areas, both in numbers of individuals and species. They are often kept as singing cage birds.

Learn more about finch with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Finches are passerine birds, often seed-eating, found chiefly in the northern hemisphere and Africa. One subfamily is endemic to the Neotropics. The family scientific name Fringillidae comes from the Latin word "fringilla", meaning chaffinch, a member of this family that is common in Europe. The taxonomic structure of the true finch family, Fringillidae, is somewhat disputed, with some including the Hawaiian honeycreepers as another subfamily (Drepanidinae) and/or uniting the cardueline and fringilline finches as tribes (Carduelini and Fringillini) in one subfamily; the euphonious finches were thought to be tanagers due to general similarity in appearance and mode of life until their real affinities were realized; the buntings and American sparrows were formerly considered another subfamily (Emberizinae). Przewalski's "Rosefinch" (Urocynchramus pylzowi) is now classified as a distinct, monotypic family with no particularly close relatives (Groth 2000).

"Classic" or true finches are small to moderately large and have strong, stubby beaks, which in some species can be quite large. All have 12 tail feathers and 9 primaries. They have a bouncing flight, alternating bouts of flapping with gliding on closed wings, and most sing well. Their nests are basket-shaped and built in trees. The true finches range in size from the Andean Siskin (Carduelis spinescens), at 9.5 cm (3.8 inches) and 8.4 g., to the Collared Grosbeak (Mycerobas affinis), at nearly 23 cm (9 inches) and 79 g. (2.8 oz).

There are many birds in other families which are often called finches. These include many species in the very similar-looking Estrildids or waxbill family, which occur in the Old World tropics and Australia. Several groups of the Emberizidae family (buntings and American sparrows) are also named as finches, as are Darwin's finches of the Galapagos islands, which provided evidence of natural selection.

Systematics

The systematics of the cardueline finches are contentious. The layout presented here follows the molecular studies of Marten & Johnson (1986) and Arnaiz-Villena et al. (1998, 2001, 2007, 2008), and takes into account the traditional splitting of the genus Carduelis. The exact position of several genera in the cardueline sequence is tentative.

Family Fringillidae

• Subfamily Fringillinae - Fringilline finches; contains only three species, which feed their young on insects rather than straw.
• Genus Fringilla - Brambling and the chaffinches
• Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
• Blue Chaffinch (Fringilla teydea)
• Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)

• Subfamily Carduelinae - Cardueline finches; a much larger group that contains several genera which feed their young on seeds. Studies of mitochondrial DNA suggest this subfamily consists of several well-defined clades.
• Hawfinches and Asian Grosbeaks.
• Genus Eophona - oriental grosbeaks
• Genus Coccothraustes - Hawfinch, Evening Grosbeak - polyphyletic?
• Genus Mycerobas - Mycerobas grosbeaks
• American Rosefinches.
• Genus "Carpodacus" - House Finch, Cassin's Finch, and Purple Finch
• Bullfinches.
• Genus Pinicola - Pine Grosbeak
• Genus Pyrrhula - bullfinches
• "Arid-zone" clade.
• Genus Leucosticte - mountain finches
• Genus N.N. - Dark-breasted Rosefinch, "Carpodacus" nipalensis
• Genus Rhodopechys - Trumpeter Finch and relatives
• Asian Rosefinches.
• Genus Carpodacus - rosefinches (Genus in need of substantial revision. May consist of two or more genera; alternatively may include Haematospiza and Uragus)
• Genus Haematospiza - Scarlet Finch
• Genus Uragus - streaked rosefinches

**Goldfinch - Canary - Crossbill clade. Carduelis and Serinus are polyphyletic and are probably best regarded as a collection of independent sub-groups or genera.

• Genus Serinus sensu lato - canaries, seedeaters, serins and African siskins
• (Sub)Genus Serinus sensu stricto - European Serin and relatives, possibly related to Spinus.
• (Sub)Genus Crithagra - afrotropical canaries, seedeaters, citrils etc. Probably only distantly related to Serinus.
• Genus Linurgus - Oriole Finch. Possibly basal to Crithagra.
• Genus Rhynchostruthus - the golden-winged grosbeaks. Tentatively placed here.
• Genus "Serinus" thibetanus - Tibetan Serin. Probably related to Spinus and Serinus sensu stricto.
• Genus Carduelis sensu lato
• (Sub)Genus Carduelis sensu stricto - European Goldfinch, Citril Finch and Corsican Finch. Probably only distantly related to Spinus.
• (Sub)Genus Spinus - siskins and american goldfinches
• (Sub)Genus Linaria - linnets and twite. Related to Spinus.
• (Sub)Genus Chloris - greenfinches and Desert Finch
• (Sub)Genus Acanthis - redpolls. Related to Loxia.
• (Sub)Genus Loxia - crossbills.

Genera as yet unplaced.

• Genus Pyrrhoplectes - Gold-naped Finch
• Genus Chaunoproctus - Bonin Grosbeak (extinct)
• Genus Callacanthis - Spectacled Finch
• Genus Neospiza - Sao Tomé Grosbeak

Subfamily Drepanidinae - Hawaiian honeycreepers. Usually treated as a separate family but biochemical studies (Arnaiz-Villena et al, 2007) place them as a well-defined clade deep within the Carduelines.

Subfamily Euphoniinae - Euphonious finches; endemic to the Neotropics; formerly treated in Thraupidae.

• Genus Euphonia, the euphonias
• Genus Chlorophonia, the chlorophonias

References

• Arnaiz-Villena, A.; Álvarez-Tejado, M.; Ruiz-del-Valle, V.; García-de-la-Torre, C.; Varela, P.; Recio, M. J.; Ferre. S. & Martínez-Laso, J. (1998): Phylogeny and rapid Northern and Southern Hemisphere speciation of goldfinches during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 54(9): 1031–1041. PDF fulltext Erratum, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 55(1): 148. PDF fulltext
• Arnaiz-Villena, A.; Guillén, J.; Ruiz-del-Valle, V.; Lowy, E.; Zamora, J.; Varela, P.; Stefani, D. & Allende, L. M. (2001): Phylogeography of crossbills, bullfinches, grosbeaks, and rosefinches. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 58: 1159–1166. PDF fulltext
• Arnaiz-Villena, A., Moscoso, J., Ruiz-del-Valle, V., Gonzalez, J., Reguera, R., Ferri, A., Wink, M., Serrano-Vela, J. I. 2008. Mitochondrial DNA Phylogenetic Definition of a Group of ‘Arid-Zone’ Carduelini Finches. The Open Ornithology Journal, Volume 1: pp.1-7. (Free download available at http://www.bentham.org/open/tooenij/openaccess2.htm)
• Arnaiz-Villena, A., Moscoso, J., Ruiz-del-Valle, V., Gonzalez, J., Reguera, R., Wink, M., I. Serrano-Vela, J. 2007. Bayesian phylogeny of Fringillinae birds: status of the singular African oriole finch Linurgus olivaceus and evolution and heterogeneity of the genus Carpodacus. Acta Zoologica Sinica, 53 (5):826 - 834. PDF fulltext
• Clement, Peter; Harris, Alan & Davis, John (1993): Finches and Sparrows: an identification guide. Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-8017-2
• Groth, J. G. 1994. A mitochondrial cytochrome b phylogeny of cardueline finches. Journal für Ornithologie, 135: 31.
• Groth, J. G. 1998. Molecular phylogeny of the cardueline finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers. Ostrich, 69: 401.
• Groth, J (2000) "Molecular evidence for the systematic position of Urocynchramus pylzowi." Auk 117(3): 787-792.
• Klicka, J., K.P. Johnson, and S.M. Lanyon. 2000. New World nine-primaried oscine relationships: Constructing a mitochondrial DNA framework. Auk 117:321-336.
• Marten, Jill A. & Johnson, Ned K. (1986): Genetic relationships of North American cardueline finches. Condor 88(4): 409-420. PDF fulltext
• Newton, Ian. (1973). "Finches". New Naturalist series. Taplinger Publishing (ISBN 0-8008-2720-1)
• Ryan, P.G., Wright, D., Oatley, G., Wakeling, J., Cohen, C., Nowell, T.L., Bowie, R.C.K., Ward, V. & Crowe, T.M. 2004. Systematics of Serinus canaries and the status of Cape and Yellow-crowned Canaries inferred from mtDNA and morphology. Ostrich 75:288-294.
• Treplin, S. 2006. Inference of phylogenetic relationships in passerine birds (Aves: Passeriformes) using new molecular markers. (Dissertation - available online) http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2006/1123/pdf/treplin_diss.pdf.
• Yuri, T., and D. P. Mindell. 2002. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of Fringillidae, "New World nine-primaried oscines" (Aves: Passeriformes). Mol. Phylogen. Evol. 23:229-243.

External links

• Finch videos on the Internet Bird Collection