Lesser Redpoll
Acanthis cabaret
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A tiny, red-capped finch that spends summer quietly in birch woodland and winter hanging acrobatically from the thinnest twigs.
A tiny, restless finch with a streaky brown body, a splash of red on the forehead and, in breeding males, a pink flush across the chest. Lesser redpolls are resident in Dumfries and Galloway, breeding in birch woodland, scrub and conifer plantation edges, but their numbers here shift with the seasons as some birds move south for winter and others arrive from further north. That movement makes autumn and winter the best time to catch up with them, when flocks gather to strip seed from birch and alder trees, often hanging at impossible angles from the thinnest twigs. Their flight call — a hard, dry rattle — is often the first sign a flock is passing overhead. Quiet and easily overlooked in summer, they become a genuinely sociable, conspicuous bird once the leaves are down and the seed crop is ripe.
Behaviour
Redpolls feed with the same acrobatic confidence as siskins, clinging sideways or upside down to reach seed heads other finches can't manage. Winter flocks move together from tree to tree with a bouncing, undulating flight, keeping in constant contact with dry, chattering calls. They favour birch and alder above almost anything else, following the ripening seed crop through the colder months.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Finches (Fringillidae)
- Size
- 11.5–12.5 cm · smaller than a sparrow
- UK status
- Red-listed
Photo by MPF, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons