Purple pennant

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Purple pennant
Male of the purple raspberry (Haemorhous purpureus)

Male of the purple raspberry ( Haemorhous purpureus )

Systematics
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Family : Finches (Fringillidae)
Subfamily : Goldfinches (Carduelinae)
Tribe : Carduelini
Genre : American carminlet ( Haemorhous )
Type : Purple pennant
Scientific name
Haemorhous purpureus
( Gmelin , 1789)

The purple pimple ( Haemorhous purpureus ) is a songbird in the finch family . The species inhabits a wide belt across Canada , the west coast of North America to northern Mexico and part of the USA east of the Great Lakes.

description

Female of the purple raspberry

Appearance

With a body length of 13.5–16 cm, the purple pimple is the middle of the three species of the genus Haemorhous and thus about the size of a chaffinch . The wing length is 74–87 mm in the male and 74–84 mm in the female. The tail length is between 15.5 and 61.5 mm, the weight between 20 and 31 g. The conical beak has a round ridge, is dark above and yellowish horn-colored below. The feet are pale brown.

The sexes differ significantly in the color of the plumage. The male is raspberry red or purple pink on the top of the head except for the vertex. The back of the head and neck are similarly colored, but striped brown. Reins, ear covers and sometimes a hint of beard are brownish with a reddish tint. The broad, pink stripe above the eyes usually begins behind the eye and ends at the sides of the neck. Some birds have darker stripes on their crowns, some have darker eye stripes. The chin, throat and chest are pink or mauve like the stripe above the eyes. This color runs on the lower chest or abdomen. The flanks are beige or whitish and sometimes brownish or reddish washed over. However, there is no clear stripe. The lower belly and tail-coverts are whitish and the latter are sometimes tinged with pink. The back and shoulders are reddish like the neck and the back of the head, but the brown stripes are coarser and sometimes stronger due to dark feathers. The rear back and rump are single-colored, dark pink-red, the upper tail-covers are ash-brown with pink or reddish tips. The forked tail is dark brown with warm brown edges. The arm covers are dark brown with beige-pink hems and tips. Alula , coverts and wings are colorless brown or blackish, the wings have reddish-brown hems.

The female is rather monotonous gray-brown on top with fine dotted lines and dark feather centers on the back. Only a broad, beige stripe over the eyes, which runs to the sides of the neck, and a brightly indicated cheek stripe stand out from this. The darker wing and tail feathers are lined with light, the tips of the arm covers form a double band. The underside including chin and throat is beige to whitish and shows a washed-out, rough stripes. In older females it can be tinged with reddish. The striations usually appear on the lower abdomen.

The youth dress is similar to that of the female, but is warmer on top with a yellowish-brown rump. Males in the first summer are also similarly colored, but olive-brown on the head and rump. The chin and throat are deep yellow, this coloration extends to the chest. In the second winter, the young males, which already occupy a territory in summer, then molt into adult dress.

The purple pimple is quite similar to the somewhat larger Cassingimpel , but can be distinguished from it by the stronger beak with the curved ridge. The red head of the male also extends further to the back and chest, the top of the head and neck or back are not as clearly separated from each other as in the Cassingimpel. In the female of the purple bumblebee, the dark, detached ear covers and the light, unlined stripe over the eyes are characteristic features. The dark lines on the underside of the female Cassingimpel are much sharper. Further distinguishing features are the long hand swing projection in the Cassingimpel and the voice.

voice

The flight call is a metallic pik , pit or pink and also a melodic char-lie , schi-wi or twie-u . The singing is a quick, bright and slightly hoarse chirp with repeated syllables. It usually rises slightly in pitch and ends with a descending trill. He can be heard from singing stations in trees or at the elaborate floor balz.

Distribution and geographic variation

The purple pimple colonizes a wide belt in Canada that extends from British Columbia to Newfoundland . On the east coast of the United States, the distribution extends south to northern New Jersey and West Virginia , northern Illinois and Ohio, and central Minnesota . On the west coast, the distribution extends in a narrow strip to northern Mexico. There are two recognized subspecies. The subspecies C. p. californicus is generally more pink than the nominate form with less conspicuous stripes above the eyes, a warmer back and less reddish tinged plumage. The female is more diffuse dashed.

hikes

The purple pimple is a partial puller . Some populations stay in the breeding area all year round, while others move to more southern regions. Depending on the food supply, the stocks in the wintering areas can fluctuate greatly. The nominate form winters mainly in the eastern part of North America and south and south-east of the breeding areas. Overwinterers are found in southeast Texas , the Gulf Coast and central Florida . The subspecies californicus mostly only migrates to lower altitudes. However, some birds hibernate further south, for example in northern Mexico.

Way of life

The relatively common purple coarse breeds in the more northerly coniferous forests, in open mixed forests, wooded hills and canyons or in settlement habitats on the outskirts of cities - for example in parks, orchards or gardens with feeding places.

You can find him individually, in pairs or in small groups. During the migration period and in winter, it is present in many places in a noticeably large number. After the breeding season, associations of up to 30 females and young birds often form. The species often socializes with spruce and golden siskins .

The purple pennant looks for its food in trees, bushes or on the ground. It feeds mainly on conifer seeds, but also on other seeds, buds, berries and ripe fruits. Insects or their larvae are used as food supplements. He eats sunflower and hemp seeds as well as millet at feeding places that he likes to visit.

Systematics

The purple pimple, like the closely related species, domestic pimple and cassing pimple, was long placed in the genus Carpodacus , within which they were the only three species with a purely nearctic distribution. Investigations of the mitochondrial DNA from 2007 and 2011 showed that the genus is polyphyletic and that the three nearctic finch species are not as closely related to the other "carmine rasp" as assumed. The American Ornithologists' Union followed the suggestion to classify the three species into a separate genus in 2012 in its 53rd Supplement to the Check List of North American Birds . They are now in the Haemorhous genus established by William Swainson in 1837 .

literature

  • P. Clement, A. Harris, J. Davis: Finches and Sparrows , Helm Identification Guides, London 1993/1999, ISBN 0-7136-5203-9
  • DA Sibley: The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, AA Knopf, New York 2003, ISBN 0-679-45120-X

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A. Arnaiz-Villena et al .: 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, pp. 826-834, 2007
  2. ↑ Heather RL Lerner, Matthias Meyer, Helen F. James, Michael Hofreiter, Robert C. Fleischer: Multilocus Resolution of Phylogeny and Timescale in the Extant Adaptive Radiation of Hawaiian Honeycreepers , Current Biology 21, pp. 1–7, 2011, doi : 10.1016 / j.cub.2011.09.039
  3. ^ R. Terry Chesser, Richard C. Banks, F. Keith Barker, Carla Cicero, Jon I. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Irby J. Lovette, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J. v. Remsen, JR., James D. Rising, Douglas F. Stotz, Kevin Winker: Fifty-third Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of North American Birds , The Auk 129/3, pp. 573-588, 2012, ( PDF )

Web links

Commons : Purple Pimple  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files