How common are finches?
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The long-tailed finch ("Poephila acuticauda") is a common species of estrildid finch found in Australia; also known as the blackheart finch, shaft-tail finch, Heck's grassfinch, Heck's grass finch, and Heck's finch. It is a predominantly fawn-coloured bird with a pale grey head and prominent black bib and eyes. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,000,000–10,000,000 km. It inhabits dry savannah habitats in Australia and adapts readily to aviculture. The IUCN has classified the species as being of least concern.
Long-tailed finch
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The finches have a near-global distribution, being found across the Americas, Eurasia and Africa, as well as some island groups such as the Hawaiian islands. They are absent from Australasia, Antarctica, the Southern Pacific and the islands of the Indian Ocean, although some European species have been widely introduced in Australia and New Zealand.
Finch
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The painted finch ("Emblema pictum") is a common species of estrildid finch found in Australia. The painted finch acquired its name due to the red and white spotted and mottled underparts of both males and females. The Latin name ("Emblema pictum") comes from emblema meaning mosaic or inlaid work; and pictum was derived from the Latin work pictus, meaning painted (from pingere, to paint). Other names include Emblema finch, Mountain finch, Painted firetail and Emblema. The painted finch is a popular bird to be kept in captivity and in backyard aviaries.
Painted finch
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In the Kimberley District of Western Australia, where most wild Gouldian finch were trapped for aviculture, it was often reported as one of the more common of the eleven finch species. Until 1977, it was trapped in greater numbers than any other finch. From 1897, when finch trapping started in the Kimberley, it was the most sought after finch by trappers and the most desired by fanciers. Between the years 1934 and 1939, the Gouldian finch was the most exported single finch species. The Perth Zoo exported 22,064 finches of which 12,509 were Gouldian. Private dealers exported 35,315 finches, of which 14,504 were Gouldian. The number of finches taken in the 1958 finch trapping season was the largest for one year, of the 38,649 finches taken, 11,286 were Gouldian. The last licensed trapping of Gouldian finch in Western Australia was on 15 November 1981. In that year's finch trapping season, of the 23,450 finches taken 1,054 were Gouldian. However, it is now illegal to export these birds from Australia.
Gouldian finch
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Recent research by Zamora "et al." (2006) has revealed that the desert finch is more closely related to the greenfinches of the genus "Carduelis" (or "Chloris", if "Carduelis" is split up) as indicated by DNA sequence analysis, vocalizations, and the presence of a black eye-stripe. Genetically, it seems very close to the common ancestor of the greenfinches. It may be that the latter evolved from a desert form and later developed the green plumage, or that the common ancestor of the greenfinches and the desert finch (which lived around 6 million years ago) was a species of semiarid habitat which subsequently diverged into a truly desert-adapted lineage, today represented by the desert finch, and the ancestor of a woodlands lineage, the greenfinches.
Desert finch
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Red-browed finches are common aviary birds. The red-browed finch will sometimes hybridise with the star finch, crimson finch, and zebra finch if kept together in captivity.
The species has been introduced to southwest Australia, where it is sometimes confused with the red-eared firetail "Stagonopleura oculata".
Red-browed finch
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The common cactus finch is one of six species in the genus "Geospiza", part of a group of closely related species known as Darwin's finches. There are four recognized subspecies:
Common cactus finch
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The cut-throat finch ("Amadina fasciata") is a common species of estrildid finch found throughout Africa; it is also known as the bearded finch, the ribbon finch, the cut throat, and the weaver finch.
Cut-throat finch
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The red pileated finch ("Coryphospingus cucullatus"), also known as the red-crested finch, is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, on the eastern side of the Andes. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and heavily degraded former forest. This is a common species, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as "least concern".
Red pileated finch
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The Fringillidae are all seed-eaters with stout conical bills. They have similar skull morphologies, nine large primaries, 12 tail feathers and no crop. In all species, the female builds the nest, incubates the eggs, and broods the young. Finches are divided into two subfamilies, the Carduelinae, containing around 28 genera with 141 species and the Fringillinae containing a single genus, "Fringilla", with three species: the chaffinch ("F. coelebs"), the Tenerife blue chaffinch ("F. teydea"), and the brambling ("F. montifringilla"). Fringilline finches raise their young almost entirely on arthropods, while the cardueline finches raise their young on regurgitated seeds.
Common chaffinch
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The common ancestor of all greenfinches, which are among the oldest "Carduelis" species, appeared on Earth around 9 MYA.
One of these common ancestors is the desert finch, which now thrives in Asian deserts, but could have also inhabited African deserts.
This finch, with very pale colors and a breeding season mask similar to that of the common greenfinch, used to be classified, according to phenotypical (external) characters, close to the trumpeter finch, but it belongs to genus "Carduelis" according to several molecular studies.
Desert finch