Pyrrhula
Rotkopfgimpel ( P. erythrocephala )
The authentics Bullfinch (Pyrrhula ) are a genus of the family of finches ( Fringillidae ).
The genus includes nine species.
Features
The Beak of the Finch is thick, short and plump. The beak edges are bent inward. The round nostrils are located in deep pits and covered by feathers. The relatively short wings do not reach the center of the notched tail. The coloring of the plumage is striking due to white, gray and black areas that stand out from the rose red, orange or ocher color of the body. Typical are also the black wings and tail feathers and the mostly white rump. The females are inconspicuous colored than the males. Calls and song are inconspicuous.
Habitat and Distribution
The majority of species live in mountain forests, but some also in mixed and coniferous forests of the lowlands.
The species are mainly distributed in the Palaearctic region, but a few in Southeast Asia. In Central Europe, only the bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula ) the species occurs, with the largest area of distribution.
Reproduction
The nest consists of a cup-shaped part, which is supported by a substructure of thin branches. The eggs are white, greenish or bluish with speckles. The pair bond can last up through the breeding season also.
Species
- Shed head Bullfinch ( P. nipalensis ): It is widely used in a large, but not widely occupied territory in East Asia. This area includes the Himalayas and mountain deciduous forests up to an altitude of 3000 meters above the sea in Burma, South China, Taiwan and Malaysia. The coloration is similar to that of young birds of other species. They are plain gray.
- White-cheeked Bullfinch ( P. leucogenys ): It occurs on the Philippine islands of Luzon and Mindanao. The body plumage is brown, the innermost secondaries is yellow red in males and in females. The face mask is similar to the other types of black, the coverts on the ears are white. The white rump is demarcated dark.
The two species probably form a superspecies.
- Gold back Bullfinch ( P. aurantiaca ): He comes in Kashmir, the North-West of the Himalayas, before. Its plumage is on the bottom and top mostly orange-red.
- Rotkopfgimpel ( P. erythrocephala ): The distribution includes eastern, to the east of Bhutan, at the back of the Gold Dupe, due in part both species live sympatrically. His back plumage is gray, head and bottom are orange extended.
- Mask Bullfinch ( P. erythaca ): It lives in the forests of the mountains of Bhutan to central China and Taiwan. Only the feathers on the breast and flanks is orange-red, the rest of the body plumage is gray. The white rump has a faint, black tape on the front edge.
These three species occur in mixed and coniferous forests in the Himalayas. They have a black face mask. The orange plumage coloration covered from west to east less the whole body. The three types probably form a superspecies.
- Azores Bullfinch ( P. murina ): see ibid.
- Bullfinch ( P. pyrrhula ): see ibid.
- Grey Bullfinch ( P. cinercea ) and P. griseiventris: both forms are considered subspecies of P. pyrrhula or as a separate species. They live in Central Asia and the Far East. In Ussuria they live in sympatry without hybridization. The Grey Bullfinch lives in fir and spruce forests in 600 to 1000 meters above sea level, P. griseiventris in stone pine and spruce forests in more than 1000 meters above sea level.
These four species are a transpaläarktische Gimpel group representing together a super species or a polytypic species.