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The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage.
The family Fringillidae are the "true" finches. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) recognizes these 239 species in the family, distributed among three subfamilies and 50 genera. Confusingly, only 79 of the species include "finch" in their common names, and several other families include species called finches.
The house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) is a North American bird in the finch family.It is native to Mexico and southwestern United States, but has since been introduced to the eastern part of North America and Hawaii; it is now found year-round in all parts of the United States and most of Mexico, with some residing near the border of Canada.
Finches are a form taxon composed of unrelated but similar-looking songbirds within the family Fringillidae of the superfamily Passeroidea. The family Fringillidae includes numerous birds not called "finches" in their common names, including the crossbills , siskins , and waxbills .
The term "Darwin's finches" was first applied by Percy Lowe in 1936, and popularised in 1947 by David Lack in his book Darwin's Finches. [7] [8] Lack based his analysis on the large collection of museum specimens collected by the 1905–06 Galápagos expedition of the California Academy of Sciences, to whom Lack dedicated his 1947 book. The ...
Medium ground finches have a better chance of survival in their habitat than small ground finches, due to their beak size. [18] The beak size of medium ground finches can evolve in a relatively short period of time, depending on if it is a wet season or dry season. [19] Survival and beak size of the birds are fueled by the environment.
These finches are on a cline (series of biocommunities on a continuous gradient), and individuals in the hybrid zone have intermediate traits. This is an example of parapatric speciation, where the elevation gradient of 560 meters causes differentiation in traits, but hybrids are well adapted in their “hybrid zone.” [ 12 ]
The purple finch is now one of three finches placed in the genus Haemorhous that was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson. [5] Two subspecies are recognised: [5] H. p. purpureus (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – central south, southeast Canada and northeast USA; H. p. californicus (Baird, SF, 1858) – southwest Canada and west USA