Common Redpoll
Common Redpoll Carduelis flammea
Sound (205 KB)
DESCRIPTION:
Size:
5 inches (13 cm)
Abundance:
• Common
Quick Identification:
• Red cap
• Black chin
• Whitish overall with rosy breast
• Dark tail, wings
Identification Tips:
• Conical bill
• Red forehead
• Black chin
• Gray back with black streaks
• Streaked rump
• Pale underparts with streaked sides and flanks
• Forked tail
• Male has pink breast
• Some variation in paleness of plumage
Similar species:
• The Hoary Redpoll is very similar to the Common Redpoll but appears paler, has less
streaking on the sides, an unstreaked rump and undertail coverts and a smaller bill. Male
Hoaries typically have less pink on the breast than male Commons. Pale Commons may be very
difficult to distinguish from dark Hoaries.
HABITAT:
Arctic tundra, birch forests, brushy areas, weedy fields, feeders, mixed woodlands,
roadsides. Winter population fluctuates widely. Often forms large winter flocks.
NESTING & FEEDING:
BREEDING: Subarctic forest, shrubby areas, open tundra with scattered shrubs. 1,
occasionally 2 broods. Mating system is believed to be monogamous.
DISPLAYS: Courtship: female crouches with drooped wings and twitters while male stands
stiffly before her and bows.
NEST: Foundation of twigs with woven cup of fine twigs, rootlets, grass, lichen, moss,
lined with ptarmigan feathers, plant down, fur. Female believed to build nest. Usually 4-6
feet off the ground in shrubs or on rocks.
EGGS: 4-5 pale green or bluish, spotted with purples especially at large end. 0.7"
(17 mm).
CHICK DEVELOPMENT: Female incubates. Incubation takes 10-11 days. Development is altricial
(immobile, downless, eyes closed, fed). Young leave the nest after 12 days. Female tends
young with help from male.
DIET: Primarily seeds of deciduous and coniferous shrubs, forbs, and grass; insects taken
when abundant.
CONSERVATION: Winters within North America; biennial invasion into s portion of range
likely related to reduced availability of food farther n.
NOTES: Apparently not territorial, nests occasionally close together. Little fidelity to
breeding or wintering areas. Song most common prior to breakup of winter flocks. Study of
captive flock revealed rigid social hierarchy: males dominant over females during
nonbreeding season, reversed with approach of breeding season. Male feeds incubating
female. Winter flocks of a few individuals to more than 100 of mixed forms and species of
redpolls; tame and easily approached. Bathes in winter in snow or water.
WORLD RANGE:
Carduelis flammea COMMON REDPOLL. Open birch woodland, scrub, willows, tundra.
From s Greenland, Iceland and n Scandinavia e across nw,n,c Russia and n Siberia (n to
55°N) to Kamchatka (to 50°N) and s to s Siberia and Kuril Islands; from w,n Alaska, n
Yukon, n Mackenzie, s Victoria I., n Keewatin, n Quebec, Baffin I., and n Labrador s to
s,se Alaska, extreme nw British Columbia, s Mackenzie, ne Alberta, n Saskatchewan, n
Manitoba, n Ontario, nc Quebec and Newfoundland; locally in British Isles and Europe s to
Alps, Czechoslovakia and cw Russia. Winters s to c U.S. (vagrant to n Calif.), n
Mediterranean region and c Asia. Introduced in New Zealand and Macquarie Island, vagrant
on Lord Howe Island. The large-billed race rostrata of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago is
sometimes treated as a species.
