Common Rosefinch - BirdForum Opus

Breeding Male
Photo © by Alok Tewari
Dwarahat, Altitude 5100 feet, Almora, Uttarakhand Himalayas, India, 20 April 2025

Carpodacus erythrinus

Identification

Female
Photo © by Alok Tewari
Dwarahat, Altitude 5100 feet, Almora, Uttarakhand Himalayas, India, 20 April 2025

Male

Bright rosy-pink head, breast and rump
Dark brown wings
2 wing bars
White belly
Heavy bill

Female

Yellowish-brown upperparts
Brighter rump
Buff underparts
Grey head

Distribution

Female
Photo © by Sanya
Kosmodem'yansky, Ruza, Moscow, Russia, June 2006

Breeding in Sweden, eastern Europe and Siberia, northern Iran, Pakistan, China, Tibet, and Japan.

Winters in south east China, Indochina, Burma, India and southern Iran.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

This is a polytypic species, consisting of five subspecies:

C. e. erythrinus:

Eastern Europe to western Asia; winters to India and Indochina

C. e. grebnitskii:

Eastern Siberia to Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk; winters to south-eastern China

C. e. kubanensis:

Caucasus to north-western Iran; winters to south-western Iran

C. e. ferghanensis:

Mountains of north-eastern Iran to northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and western Himalayas

C. e. roseatus:

Eastern Himalayas to Tibet and China; winters to southern India and Indochina

Habitat

Ssp. roseatus : Immature Male
Photo © by Alok Tewari
Dwarahat, Alt. 5200 ft., Uttarakhand Himalayas, India, April-2017

Woodland, forest edge, thickets, near water.

Behaviour

Diet

They mainly eat seeds, buds and shoots.

Breeding

They nest in low bushes. The clutch consists of 5 brown-spotted, dark blue eggs.

Vocalisation

They sing from an exposed perch.

Gallery

Click images to see larger version

References

Clements, JF. 2010. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2010. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.5.xls/view
Wikipedia
Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Common Rosefinch. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 17 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Common_Rosefinch

External Links

Search for photos of Common Rosefinch in the gallery

Search for videos of Common Rosefinch in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1