Appearance:

Small and neat finch with red forehead patch, black bib and base of bill, yellow bill with dark tip and buff wing-bars. Male with pinkish or red chest. Rump streaked, and under tail-coverts with dark centre (as opposed to Arctic Redpoll). Base colour of plumage varies between different subspecies from warm brown to greyish. S.sp. cabaret (often treated as an own species: Lesser Redpoll) has brownish plumage tones, and is smaller than flammea (Common Redpoll). Juveniles lacks red forehead, has less contrasting head markings and more prominent streaking than adults. Underparts with darker streaking, and lores and chin darker than juvenile Linnet and Twite. Dancing flight, with deeper undulations than Linnet.

Sound:

Contact call diagnostic. A chattering "Chutt-utt-utt", with a more metallic and nasal timbre than Linnet and Twite. Other sound includes plaintive call mostly given when perched. Uttered as a continuous sound, but with a disyllabic feel. First part ascending slowly, then faster before it is cut off "tsooeet". Song an improvised chattering on various contact calls with no apparent phrasing.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

Highly variable with many subspecies in different regions. Upperparts mainly grey and greenish, underparts yellow. Tail quite short compared to other wagtails, and the whole bird in profile is not unlike a pipit. Smallest wagtail in the region. Some birds are very pale below, head markings are very variable, depending on subspecies. Hybrids are not uncommon. Differs from Grey Wagtail in dark legs, only pale yellow vent and narrow wing-bars. Juvenile White Wagtails and Yellow Wagtails can be confused, but White Wagtail is greyer, with big grey breast patch (Yellow Wagtail may show narrow breast band). Closest congener is Citrine Wagtail, which lacks dark lore, has broad wing-bars and grey back.

Sound:

Contact call characteristic and widely used; a sharp, drawn out "pseeeoo" with an accented ending falling in pitch. Song primitive and less striking. A variable phrase with two or three notes resembling the contact call in timbre. Beware differences in calls and songs between different subspecies.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC