[NatureNS] Re: redpoll question

From: "Roland McCormick" <roland.mccormick@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
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Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 21:03:21 -0400
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&
My observations have been the same - very few of the redpoles have pink 
breasts - in a flock of a hundred you may find three or four with pink on 
their breast, and perhaps one that is a lighter colour.

Roland.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lois Codling" <loiscodling@hfx.eastlink.ca>
To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 8:13 PM
Subject: [NatureNS] Re: redpoll question


> Thank you, Blake, for such terrific information re Redpolls.  Very helpful 
> in trying to sort them out.
>
> We have a question.  Why are there so few adult males, at least in the 
> flocks we are observing around our house?  I would guess there are about 
> one in twenty-five that are at all pink-breasted.  Are other people 
> finding the same proportion?  The Sibley site you gave, Blake, mentioned 
> that the white feather edges wear away from the fresh fall plumage to 
> reveal more pink as the winter progresses, so I guess that is a possible 
> answer.  Any other suggestions?
>
> We may have had 3 of the 4 subspecies today in our flock of about 100.  I 
> saw a pale bird high up in the trees, near two other darker ones, but 
> never got a closer look.  Don saw a large dark one, which may have been a 
> Greater Common Redpoll.  From now on we'll be watching closely, with 
> better information to judge by!
>
> Lois Codling
> L. Sackville
>
> Blake Maybank wrote:
>> At 02:58 PM 01/01/2008, Jane wrote:
>>> I've been trying to see if I could find a hoary among "our" big flock of 
>>> common redpolls.  I noticed that someone on this list said he looked for 
>>> a BIGGER bird.  Well, our (old edition) Peterson says the hoary is 
>>> SMALLER than the common (4 1/2 -5 1/2 for the hornemanni and 5-5 1/2 for 
>>> the flammea)!  Pat Mackay looked in her Sibley, and it also said the 
>>> hoary was a bit bigger than the common.  Our Burrows book also says the 
>>> hoary is bigger.  Wow.  Did Roger Tory Peterson actually make a 
>>> mistake??  The illustration in our Burrows shows the side of the hoary's 
>>> head (lores and auricular) to be very light.  What have you experts 
>>> found?
>>
>> This seems an opportune time to forward the following superb redpoll 
>> analysis, that first appeared on the Birding ID Frontiers discussion 
>> group.   It may not make separating the different redpolls any easier, 
>> but at least you will now have information to hand.  The author is Ron 
>> Pittaway.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> The Redpoll Challenge: This is a major redpoll winter in southern Canada 
>> and the United States. The legendary George North of Hamilton, Ontario, 
>> once saw all four North American redpoll subspecies in the same flock on 
>> 23 March 1958 near Hamilton (North 1983, Curry 2006). Fifty years later 
>> this could be the winter to do it again. On 15 December 2007, Ron and 
>> Doug Tozer found a big "snowball" Hornemann's" Hoary Redpoll (nominate 
>> hornemanni) on the Minden Christmas Bird Count. This is the rarest 
>> redpoll in southern Canada. On 14 December 2007, I saw two "Greater" 
>> Common Redpolls (rostrata) at our feeders in Toronto and there have been 
>> several other recent reports. With these two High Arctic subspecies and 
>> probably record numbers of "Southern" Hoary Redpolls (exilipes) in flocks 
>> of "Southern" Common Redpoll (nominate flammea), we have all four North 
>> American subspecies in southern Ontario this winter. Below I summarize 
>> the basic information needed to understand and identify redpolls with 
>> links to photos.
>>
>> Taxonomy: The American Ornithologists' Union (1998) recognizes two 
>> species: Common Redpoll (Carduelis flammea) and Hoary Redpoll (C. 
>> hornemanni). Each has two subspecies (races) breeding in North America. 
>> Discussion about lumping or splitting redpolls has been off the "radar 
>> screen" in recent years. The four subspecies are described below.
>>
>> 1. "Southern" Common Redpoll (nominate flammea): This is the commonest of 
>> the four subspecies in southern Ontario. It is the standard to which the 
>> other three are compared. In most plumages, it is noticeably streaked on 
>> the sides, undertail coverts and rump. However, adult males in winter 
>> have more contrasting whiter rumps (fewer streaks and often pinkish) than 
>> on worn breeding birds. Adult males are pink-breasted. First year males 
>> are somewhat darker and often washed with light pink. Adult females 
>> usually lack pink (sometimes tinged) and first year females are the 
>> darkest and most heavily streaked of the four age/sex classes.
>>
>> 2. "Greater" Common Redpoll (rostrata): This large and dark subspecies 
>> breeds on Baffin Island and Greenland. Greater Redpolls are a winter 
>> visitor in small numbers to the southern parts of eastern Canada from 
>> Ontario to Newfoundland (Godfrey 1986) and to the northeastern United 
>> States. Greaters are more frequent than Hoarys in some winters (Pittaway 
>> 1992). The Greater is larger (averages 14.0 cm compared to 12.5 cm for 
>> flammea) and heavier. Other field marks are the Greater's thicker bill 
>> and somewhat darker and browner coloration with conspicuous heavy 
>> streaking on the underparts usually extending to the undertail coverts. 
>> Adult male Greaters have "red of underparts less extensive and less 
>> intense" than flammea (Godfrey 1986). Males lack red on the malar area, 
>> which flammea males usually have (Beadle and Rising 2006). Some observers 
>> describe Greaters as House Finch-like. See the excellent identification 
>> article on Greater Redpoll by Beadle and Henshaw (1996) in Birders 
>> Journal 5(1):44-47, illustrated by Beadle. The differences between the 
>> two Common Redpoll subspecies are usually obvious when the two are 
>> together for comparison (Peterson 1947).
>>
>> 3. "Southern" Hoary Redpoll (exilipes): This subspecies breeds in the Low 
>> Arctic and much of its range overlaps that of the "Southern" Common 
>> Redpoll (flammea). It is the much commoner Hoary subspecies, and is 
>> similar in size to the flammea Common Redpoll. During redpoll flight 
>> years, it is usually possible to find a few classic adult male exilipes 
>> Hoarys. Compared to the "Southern" Common Redpoll, they are more frosted 
>> with white rumps, have li