Habitat
Open areas, including tussock grasslands, farmlands, parks and gardens in settled areas, but also dense shrubland and forests, although near clearings.
Food
Mainly seeds, but also insects and other invertebrates. Occasionally buds.
Voice
Short, rippling trills, often vociferous. A fast 'chuchuchuh-uh'. Metallic twittering or harsh rattling, 'chich-ich-ich-ich' or 'chich-chich-chich', sometimes followed by a 'bizzzz'. A trilling, unmusical song is uttered in flight.
Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea) [XC435385]
by Lance A. M. Benner from Werdauer Forst, Sachsen, Germany (flight call)
Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea) [XC883441]
by Stanislas Wroza from Kirkenes, S\u00f8r-Varanger, Finnmark, Norway (song)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Mid October - early February in New Zealand.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Nest
Small, neat cup composed of grass, fine twigs, moss, wool bound with cobweb, lined with feathers, willow, catkins, wool or hair, usually in the fork of a low shrub or high up in a tree.
Eggs (Guide)
4 - 5; smooth, slightly glossy, blue, spotted and streaked with pale brown; elliptical; 15 x 12 mm. Incubation: about 10 - 15 days; by female.
Young
Fledge in 12 - 15 days. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Carduelis flammea (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea) and Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis cabaret) (Knox 1988, Knox et al. 2001; see Sangster et al. 2002) but this treatment is not adopted by the BirdLife International (2002).
Probably forms superspecies with Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis cabaret) and Hoary Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni).
Proposed subspecies holboellii (described from central Germany) considered a longer-billed and slender-billed variant of nominate. Affinities of Icelandic population, proposed as subspecies islandica, does not warrant separation.
Subspecies caberet, introduced to New Zealand.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
flammea (Linnaeus, 1758) - Breeds from Iceland and Scandinavia eastern across northern and central Russia and Siberia to Kamchatka and Bering Sea, south to central Urals, Stanovoy Mts, Amurland and Sakhalin, also northern North America from Alaska east to Newfoundland. Winters south to north-western and central Europe, central and eastern Asia south to Mongolia, north-eastern China (south to Jiangsu), Korea, northern Japan (south to northern Honshu) and northern and central USA (south to Oregon, Colorado and South Carolina).
rostrata (Coues, 1861) - Breeds north-eastern Canada (central and eastern Baffin I and northern Labrador), western and south-eastern Greenland and Iceland. Winters eastern Canada (Manitoba, northern Quebec, Labrador), north-eastern USA, Iceland and north-western British Is.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
BirdLife International Species Factsheet