Lesser Redpoll

11 February 2019 

First recorded.

18 October 2017*

This tiny finch - only slightly bigger than a blue tit - is streaky and brown with patches of red on its head and sometimes its breast. They like to hang upside down to feed in trees. It has recently been 'split' from the mealy (or common) redpoll, a larger and paler species which is a winter visitor to the UK.

(LINK)

11/2/19

Nice to see a few Redpoll feeding at the park with Goldfinch, blue tit, goldcrest and Coal tit at the park. Not recorded them here before and looking at my bird list I have not seen them before either. Have had Lesser Redpoll in the past. 

Redpoll is one of the species that ornithologists do not seem able to decide on whether there are several species, subspecies or races. To skirt around this issue, I refer to them as "types".

There are 4 types of Redpoll found in Britain, all look very similar to one another but they are visibly different, here they are ranked in increasing size:

The predominant British type is the Lesser Redpoll (C. cabaret), which is described in more detail above. 

The north European type is the Common 'Mealy' Redpoll (C. flammea), which is a winter visitor and is larger (about same size as a Linnet) and greyer looking than the Lesser Redpoll.

The third type is the 'Greenland Redpoll' (C. rostrata), which is another winter visitor and is larger than the Common Redpoll and darker than the Lesser Redpoll.

The final type is the Arctic Redpoll (C. hornemanni), which is a rare vagrant from Greenland and Lapland and is slightly larger than the 'Greenland Redpoll' and has a white rump and underparts.

(LINK)