The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do not migrate. They have a worldwide native distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fifty genera. It includes the canaries, siskins, redpolls, serins, grosbeaks and euphonias, as well as the morphologically divergent Hawaiian honeycreepers.
The rosefinches are a genus, Carpodacus, of passerine birds in the finch family Fringillidae. Most are called "rosefinches" and as the word implies, have various shades of red in their plumage. The common rosefinch is frequently called the "rosefinch". The genus name is from the Ancient Greek terms karpos, "fruit", and dakno, "to bite".
The gray-crowned rosy finch or gray-crowned rosy-finch is a species of passerine bird in the family Fringillidae native to Alaska, western Canada, and the north-western United States. Due to its remote and rocky alpine habitat it is rarely seen. There are currently six recognized subspecies. It is one of four species of rosy finches.
The mountain finches are birds in the genus Leucosticte from the true finch family, Fringillidae. This genus also includes the rosy finches, named from their pinkish plumage.
The black rosy finch or black rosy-finch is a species of passerine bird in the family Fringillidae native to alpine areas above treeline, of the western United States. It is the most range-restricted member of its genus, and a popular photography subject for birdwatchers.
The brown-capped rosy finch is a medium-sized finch endemic to North America.
The chestnut-tailed starling, also called grey-headed starling and grey-headed myna is a member of the starling family. It is a resident or partially migratory species found in wooded habitats in India and Southeast Asia. The species name is after the distribution of a former subspecies in the Malabar region. While the chestnut-tailed starling is a winter visitor to peninsular India, the closely related resident breeding population with a white head is now treated as a full species, the Malabar starling.
The Laysan finch is a species of Hawaiian honeycreeper, that is endemic to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It is one of four remaining finch-billed Hawaiian honeycreepers and is closely related to the smaller Nihoa finch. The Laysan finch is named for Laysan, the island to which it was endemic on its discovery. It was subsequently introduced to a few other atolls, and its historical range included some of the main islands.
The Gouldian finch, also known as the Lady Gouldian finch, Gould's finch or the rainbow finch, is a colourful passerine bird that is native to Australia.
The Mongolian finch, also known as the Mongolian trumpeter finch, is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.
Calotes nemoricola, the Nilgiri forest lizard, is an agamid lizard found in the Western Ghats of India.
The Nihoa finch is one of the two endemic bird species of the tiny Hawaiian island Nihoa, the other being the Nihoa millerbird. When it was classified in 1917, scientists thought that it would be the last endemic species named. This was later found untrue. The island's population is 1000–3000 birds. The Nihoa finch was added to the Endangered Species List by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on March 11, 1967. An attempt to protect the species against extinction was made by starting a colony on French Frigate Shoals, another leeward island. This would ensure its continued existence in case the Nihoa population was wiped out. This attempt, however, failed. Nihoa is part of a group of islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge which provides protected land for the Nihoa finch to roam on.
The wood snipe is a species of snipe which breeds in the Himalayas of northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and southern China. In winter, it occurs at lower altitudes in the Himalayas, as a regular visitor in small numbers to north Vietnam. it also occurs as a vagrant in central and southern India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, north Thailand and Laos. It is reportedly very well-known to Chauri herders in the Himalayas.
Ladakh is to home to endemic Himalayan wildlife, such as the bharal, yak, Himalayan brown bear, Himalayan wolf and the iconic snow leopard. Hemis National Park, Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuary, and Karakorum Wildlife Sanctuary are protected wildlife areas of Ladakh. The Mountain Institute, Ladakh Ecological Development Group and Snow Leopard Conservancy work on "Ecotourism Opportunities in Rural Ladakh". For such an elevated, arid area, Ladakh has a great diversity of birds — 318 species have been recorded. Many of these birds reside at or seasonally breed in high-altitude wetlands, such as Tso Moriri, or near rivers and water sources.
The cardueline finches are a subfamily, Carduelinae, one of three subfamilies of the finch family Fringillidae, the others being the Fringillinae and the Euphoniinae. The Hawaiian honeycreepers are now included in this subfamily. Except for the Hawaiian honeycreepers which underwent adaptive radiation in Hawaii and have evolved a broad range of diets, cardueline finches are specialised seed eaters, and unlike most passerine birds, they feed their young mostly on seeds, which are regurgitated. Besides this, they differ from the other finches in some minor details of their skull. They are adept at opening seeds and clinging to stems, unlike other granivorous birds, such as sparrows and buntings, which feed mostly on fallen seeds. Some members of this subfamily are further specialised to feed on a particular type of seed, such as cones in the case of crossbills. Carduelines forage in flocks throughout the year, rather than keeping territories, and males defend their females rather than a territory or nest.
The Asian rosy finch or Asian rosy-finch is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. It breeds in Mongolia and the East Palearctic; it winters in Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin and Japan. Its natural habitats are tundra and temperate grassland.
Brandt's mountain finch, also known as the black-headed mountain-finch, is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. It is found in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Its natural habitat is temperate grassland.
Sillem's rosefinch, also known as Sillem's mountain finch or tawny-headed mountain finch is a species of rosefinch in the finch family. It is found only in China and was only known from two specimens collected in 1929 from the Aksai Chin area of southern Xinjiang Autonomous Region. In 2012, the bird was photographed 1500 km from the original collection location. This species was originally placed in the genus Leucosticte but a phylogenetic study using mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2016 found that Sillem's rosefinch was a sister species to the Tibetan rosefinch. The International Ornithological Committee therefore moved Sillem's mountain finch to the genus Carpodacus.
The orange weaver is a species of bird in the weaver family, Ploceidae. It is sparsely distributed across African tropical rainforest.
The Colorado Rockies forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of the United States.
