Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch

The Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch is another lover of extreme habit found in open ground at the top of mountains from Alaska to California and out on the Aleutian and Pribilof islands. The Gray-crowned is found farther to the west than the similar Brown-capped and the Black Rosy-Finch. It prefers open rocky hillsides, often near cliffs and, like the other Rosies, winters at lower elevations.

These are possibly the highest-altitude breeding bird in North America. Perhaps because of these remote breeding sites, which allow little contact with humans, the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch seems almost tame. On breeding grounds, foraging birds can be approached to within a foot or two. Even after banding, individuals often alight less than three feet away, picking at their new bands and preening for several minutes.

The Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch is most likely to be confused with other rosy-finches, but the Black is much darker and lacks brown back and breast and the Brown-capped lacks gray on head. To identify, remember it has a brown body, extensive pink on shoulders, flanks and belly, a dark brown forehead with grey behind which wraps around the head.

Juveniles similar to adult females, but duller coloration, and lacking gray crown, black forehead, and pink on under parts. Size and color vary geographically.

There are six subspecies of the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch. These subspecies comprise two basic forms: a larger coastal form that lives on the vast treeless plain in the Arctic regions where the subsoil is permanently frozen and a smaller alpine-interior form that lives in the high mountains above tree-line. Additionally, the six can be separated into three gray-cheeked and three brown-cheeked forms.

The gray-cheeked forms are very large; nearly twice as large as others and are characterized by their gray cheeks. These breed in the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands, as well as montane regions from west-central Alaska east to south-west Yukon and south through the Cascades to north-central California. Some move south and east, occasionally long distances, in fall and winter; from the southern part of the breading range and as far as central New Mexico. These three are the:

• Aleutian Rosy-Finch
• Pribilof Rosy-Finch, and
• Hepburn’s Rosy-Finch which winters in southern part of breeding range, east to central Montana, west Nevada, northern Utah, and central New Mexico. Substantially smaller, with shorter bill, than other gray-cheeked forms its gray and black throat contrasts sharply with dusky brown breast.

The brown-cheeked forms are characterized by brown auriculars (the feathers over the ears) that contrast with gray hindcrown. These are found mostly in interior mountains from the northern Rocky Mountains and south to Wallowa Mountains and the Sierra Nevada’s. The three are the:

• Gray-crowned or Cassin’s Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, which breeds in interior mountains of Alaska, British Columbia, and Montana and winters from southern British Columbia, east to southwest Manitoba and south to northeast California, Nevada, Utah, northern New Mexico.
• Wallowa Rosy-Finch breeds in the mountains of north-east Oregon; winters south to west central Nevada, and the
• Sierra Nevada Rosy-Finch; resident in the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains of California.

Generally these birds are found in alpine areas, usually near snow fields or glaciers, talus, rock-piles, and cliffs; typically at or above timberline. It winters in open country, including mountain meadows, shrub-lands, roadsides, towns, cultivated areas, and rocky hillsides.

Food for the Gray-crowned Rosy is similar to other Rosies and includes seeds, insects and some vegetation. That said, there is considerable variation in diet depending on habitat:

• Pribilof Rosy-Finch in summer, predominantly eats crowberry seeds but also often takes brook and sea parsley seeds. Other seeds include rush, sedge, chickweed, buttercup, cinquefoil, and bluebell. Insects taken include crane flies, ground beetles, leaf beetles, beach beetles and weevils. In winter, this bird is observed to eat almost exclusively wild parsnip.
• Aleutian Rosy-Finch eats adult beetles and their larva, as well as leaves, buds and seeds of Scurvy-grass.
• Hepburn’s Rosy-Finch eats almost exclusively seeds; Russian, wild grass, mustard, and sunflower.
• Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch eats seeds of Whitlow grass, willow-weed, spring beauty and bear grass; in breeding season, insects include cutworms.
• Sierra Nevada Rosy-Finch eats seeds of sedge, sticky cinquefoil, oval-leaved buckwheat, and cut-leaved daisy. Insects eaten include gnats, cutworms, pine needle scale (taken from white-bark pines) and mayflies.

Like other Rosies, the Gray-crowned habitat includes western mountains often close to 10,000’ in nests similar to others. The winter range includes resident breeding areas, but also disperses to lower elevations of mountains (mainly lower slopes and valleys), coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest and casually south and east of Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada’s.

Winter flocks also occur east of Cascades in Washington and Oregon, throughout Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, the western half of Colorado, mountains of north-central New Mexico, and in the Black Hills and Badlands of southwest South Dakota and extreme northwest Nebraska. In California, also winters in valleys east of breeding range in Sierra Nevada crest, on lower slopes of White, Inyo and in Marble Mountains. At this time it generally it prefers open country …wherever bare ground is found and food is available. Flocks usually land on ground, sometimes on buildings, occasionally in trees or bushes, fences, telephone wires and may congregate at feeders if snow covers food or natural food is scarce.

This beautiful shot contributed by Bill Maynard,

editor of the American Bird Conservancy's publication "Winging It"

Notice that the Hepburn's head is entirely gray.

The conservation rating for the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch is Least Concern.

Resources
• The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America – David Allen Sibley
• Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America – Ted Floyd
• Western Birds – Roger Tory Peterson
• Birds of North America-Online from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• WhatBird.com - Field Guide to Birds of North America – also from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• USGS.gov - Science for a Changing World

This is the fourth and final piece on Rosy-Finches. First photo is from Wikimedia; the last one by Bill Maynard who showed me that the Hepburn's entire head is gray...as you can see in his lovely photograph.

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch

Like the other Rosy-Finches, the Brown-capped Rosy-Finch is a bird of the high mountains; breeding above timberline. These birds favor alpine tundra near talus slops and cliff faces but winter at lower elevations. It is the southernmost of the three species and has the smallest distribution and is common in Colorado.

This beautiful shot contributed by Bill Maynard,
editor of the American Bird Conservancy's publication "Winging It"

Look for samples of the publication on that last link!

This is the most distinctive of these related finches, with rosy colors covering more of its body than in other species, but it lacks the clear gray color on the head that is so characteristic of the other species. The Brown-capped has a cinnamon-brown on back, breast, neck and face, with a distinct black or dark-brown cap covering forehead, crown and back of the head. Like the others the pink/red is found on the belly, rump and in the wings. As with all Rosy-Finches, plumages similar throughout year, except reds are more intense in summer. Females are similar to males, but much grayer and overall-lighter in color.

This shot shows how dark a Black back is
compared to a Brown's.
I love the beautiful patterns...

The Brown-capped Rosy-Finch looks most like the Gray-crowned. However, because some Brown-caps are more gray than others, and some Gray-crowns (especially females), have less gray and become browner (sometimes with no gray), the two species can look very similar. As a result, many individuals have been misidentified even in the hand and even in museum collections and by experts. Juvenile birds are drab gray-brown all over, with pinkish in wings.

The nests are above timberline wherever cliffs, caves, rock slides, or old buildings provide nest sites, and where adequate feeding grounds on tundra, rock slides, snowfields, and glaciers are within commuting distance. Like other Rosy-finches, the Brown-caps build their nests in crevices where they stay completely in the shade. The nests are on the ground or in a crevice; consist of a tightly woven cup of fine grass, stems, and rootlets surrounded by thicker layer of woven coarse stems and roots and mud, and lined with softer grass, feathers, and hair. One Brown-capped Rosy-Finch nest was frozen in ice each night as water trickling through the site froze.

Brown-caps winter in open areas, including alpine tundra during fair weather, and in the high meadows and open grassy valleys and shrub-land between mountain ranges. These rosies occasionally occur a short distance east of foothills on plains, but not as far or as often as other species of Rosy-Finch. It occurs regularly on Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) in Colorado; infrequently in New Mexico as far south as Albuquerque (Sandia Mountains), but only once in last 50 yr on counts anywhere in Wyoming.

From Wikipedia

All Rosy-finches eat insects, spiders and other bugs and seeds; this one prefers new seed to year-old seed. At feeders, individuals eat many kinds of seeds, including millet, canary seed and corn, but have been said to reject sunflower seeds…not something I’ve seen here in Huerfano County, Colorado.

This bird may be declining slightly.
Data from the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) seem to indicate a steady decline over the last 30 years with average annual total counts about half in 1990 from 1970 counts (only 500 from 1000!)

The Brown-capped Rosy-Finch has a small range, only about 6000 square miles. It has an estimated population of 45,000 individual birds. It is not believed to meet population size or decline thresholds that would necessitate the species' inclusion on the IUCN Red-list. Because of its current population status, the
Brown-capped Rosy-Finch currently has an evaluation level of Least Concern ...and yet it may be declining.

Resources
• The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America – David Allen Sibley
• Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America – Ted Floyd
• Western Birds – Roger Tory Peterson
• Birds of North America-Online from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• WhatBird.com - Field Guide to Birds of North America – also from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• USGS.gov - Science for a Changing World
Photos are mine... except where noted; including the lovely one contributed by Bill Maynard. Thanks Bill!

This is the third of a four-part series on Rosy-Finches

Black Rosy-Finch

Black Rosy-Finches are uncommon birds of the high mountains in the central US, which nest above tree line; often nesting higher than all other birds on a particular mountain.

This beautiful shot contributed by Bill Maynard,

editor of the American Bird Conservancy's publication "Winging It"

Look for samples of the publication on that last link!

These birds favor alpine tundra near rocky slops and cliff faces but winter at lower elevations. They are among the least studied of North American birds because of the inaccessibility of their alpine habitat generally, and specifically that they nest on high cliffs. Reflecting this, very, very few nests have been reached (only 3-4 as of 2002!) and only a few studies have focused on the species.

The Black Rosy-Finch is most likely to be confused with other rosy-finches but it lacks the brown look to its plumage. Its color is so dark it appears to be black on the back, breast, neck and face. Its forehead is black and a gray band wraps around the back of the head, behind the dark forehead. As with other Rosies, its bill is yellow in winter and dark during breeding season.

Juveniles are similar to female, but lighter, usually grayer brown, lacking silver-gray crown, dark forehead, and pink on feather margins.

During the winter, this finch is often found in mixed flocks with other Rosies throughout Colorado’s western mountains and east to eastern foot of Rockies. It is rare on plains east of mountains in northern part of state and less common in Colorado than other rosy-finches, averaging about 5% of flocks, except perhaps higher in extreme west (Grand Junction.) Black Rosies also winter irregularly across the northern tier of counties in New Mexico (except Union Co. in northeast corner) and south as far as Albuquerque; famous in the Sandia Mountains.

This shot shows how dark a Black back is
compared to a Brown's.
I love the beautiful patterns...

This Rosy hybridizes with other Rosy-Finches, though like all Rosies it is little studied. The extent of hybridization is unknown and many birds may be unidentifiable.

Wintering flocks of Black Rosy-Finches roost in large communal roosts in abandoned buildings, caves, mine shafts, on rafters of barns, and in clusters of old Cliff Swallow nests. Old mine-shafts may be especially valuable to this bird. Unlike other Rosies, these have never been found to nest in buildings.

This Rosy breeds in alpine areas, usually near rock piles and cliffs at elevations of 10,000 – 13,000 feet, wherever outcroppings and rock slides provide nest sites with protection from falling rocks and hail. Almost always nests look out over the tundra and valleys where they feed.

Conservation: While there are no apparent population trends; Black Rosy-finches might be declining. Because these, like other Rosy-Finches favor extremely remote breeding habitat, it is unlikely human population will adversely affect it. These birds seem almost tame and will tolerate people within three feet. Adults are tolerant of researcher-visits to their nests, so likely would not be disturbed by human recreation like climbing and skiing; however Common Ravens drawn by human garbage could cause negative impact through increased nest predation. Domestic grazing animals could reduce food supplies and attract Cow-birds that also predate; climate change will likely cause habitat loss and fragmentation and the loss of some populations. Increase in radioactive fallout could lead to significant accumulation in body tissues because of species’ habit of foraging on high-elevation snowfields that frequently concentrate fission-products to high levels. Like mercury levels in the deep-sea tuna, perhaps Rosies are the 'canaries in the mine-shaft' of our world. I only wish we'd take heed!

While feeding these birds will surely help them, it will also make them vulnerable to cats and window-strikes. Please keep your cats inside and your feeders near windows where birds can’t get up the speed to hit hard. I have found bird-netting placed outside over picture windows to be quite effective and causes little to no restriction of view and photography.

Resources
• The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America – David Allen Sibley
• Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America – Ted Floyd
• Western Birds – Roger Tory Peterson
• Birds of North America-Online from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• WhatBird.com - Field Guide to Birds of North America – also from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• USGS.gov - Science for a Changing World

Photos are mine... Except the first one that Bill Maynard kindly allowed me to use!

This is the second of a four-part series on Rosy-Finches

Rosy-Finches

Because I just love the pink-butts, and because I had dozens and dozens in my yard the other day, I've decided to research them. This is the first of
four posts; information on the three species follow.

The order Passeriformes (perching birds)/the family Fringillidae (finches: goldfinches, bullfinches, chaffinches, siskins, canaries, cardinals, grosbeaks, crossbills, linnets, and buntings)/the subfamily Carduelinae (a larger group that contains several genera which feed their young mainly on seeds)/the Genus Leucosticte (Rosy Finches)

The Rosy-Finch is a medium-sized, chunky finch with variable pinkish color on belly, rump and wings. They are 5.5 to just over 8 inches long; their wingspan is about 13 inches and weight is 0.8 to 2.1 ounces. Sexes are similar in size and coloration, but males are more colorful. All forms of rosy-finches in North American were once merged with the Asian Rosy-Finch into a single species (1983 to 1993). However as genetic, biochemical and other evidence became available, the three distinct North American species of rosy-finch are again recognized, with Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch being the most widely distributed and abundant form. While all rosy-finches have an affinity for alpine or tundra habitat, in the US, the Black Rosy-Finch holds the middle position geographically between the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch to the north and west and the Brown-capped Rosy-Finch to the south and east.

I couldn't stand it...I had to add a photo I found on Wikimedia: an Asian Rosy-Finch. The author mentioned how rare the bird is, that the thirty of so who came every year, became a pilgrimage too, for the Koreans who went to see them. You sure can see the resemblance.

All three populations are distinguished by head pattern, size and body color, though intermediate birds are unidentifiable. The Black Rosy-Finch is very dark brown, appearing black as a back-ground color. The Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch much lighter, browner bodied; pink to red feather margins often more extensive but contrast less with brown plumage. Brown-capped Rosy-Finches lack silver-gray on head and are much lighter and browner-bodied
…males are nearly golden.

All Rosy-Finches display some degree of pink to red on belly, rump, upper- and under-tail coverts, and on the wings, especially at the outer bend. This pink becomes spectacular ruby-red, spectral red or a geranium-color by midsummer. All have white nasal tufts, black legs and feet and dark brown iris. The tail is notched, tail and wings are long and under-wings appear silvery in flight…except for the Grey-crowned.
It seems to be likely that plant pigments are required for normal plumage color development, as in other carduelines.

All finches are known for their nomadic wandering and this certainly applies to the Rosy-finches. Because it breeds so high, little is known of this bird though it does gather in large, mobile and unpredictable flocks of mixed rosy-finch flocks. In winter, it occasionally descends to mountain and sometimes even foothill feeders and then suddenly departs. While finches are known for their erratic winter movements, roving flocks of rosy-finches are notorious for being unreliable to find at winter feeding stations. As in some other finches, rosy-finches observed to feed along salted roads (or urinated ground) and have the habit of suddenly departing and leap-frogging ahead of birds further up the road and landing again; successive waves flying over the others. They likely do this at feeders, as well.

In winter, Rosy-Finches roost in cliff crevices, mine shafts, wells, abandoned Cliff Swallow nests and around human-made structures such as in barns, under piers and in railroad cars, which provide protection from wind and reduce radiant heat loss. These birds also exhibit a mild nighttime hypothermia, like other carduelines, but not so sever as chickadees.

When driven to lower altitudes by rough weather, the Rosy seldom moves below the snowline, but remains in areas at least thinly covered by snow, even when completely snow-free areas readily available. Flocks often come to feeders at these times but are nearly absent during
fair weather and in years with less snow.

This is mainly an altitudinal migrant. Many may remain at high altitude throughout winter except when driven down by adverse weather and deep snow covering food supply, when they descend to valley until conditions improve…which is why we see them mainly in inclement weather and call them ‘snow birds’.

Migration timing depends on weather to some extent. Generally Rosies arrive on the tundra in April and leave (if they leave) around October. Individuals wintering close to mountains continue to move up and down with storms throughout fall and winter, making migratory periods indistinct. The bird sleeps at night and so probably is a daytime migrant.

As with all Rosy-Finches, bills are yellow for the winter. About the second week of February, probably in response to increasing day length, the bill begins to re-darken. Dark pigment first appears at tip and works slowly toward base.

The Rosy-Finch is a ground forager which primarily on seeds, with some other plant matter and insects; the proportion of insect-food taken increases in summer and when feeding young. They are most often seen feeding on insects and seeds on snow banks, and along their muddy, melting borders. Here, old food items are freshly uncovered, new items are deposited by the melting snow and seeds are germinating offering a nutritious bounty.

Contrary to popular belief, this bird both walks and hops. While it may walk, run and hop during a single advance, it favors
walking while slowly foraging on the ground
and hops when on snow.

One unusual behavior of all rosy-finches is that males defend ‘floating’ territories that move with their mates, rather than a fixed piece of real estate. This occurs only during the breeding season; feeding and roosting birds in winter do so often quite closely.

Rosy-Finches nest on the ground in a cup of woven grass and stems, lined with fine grass, hair, and occasionally feathers. The nest is built in crack or hole in cliff, on small cliff ledge under overhanging rocks, or under rocks in talus slides. Nests usually placed on north-facing cliffs, often overlooking snowfields or glaciers, surfaces of which are important feeding areas. . It is assumed that eggs and hatchlings of Rosy-Finches are cold tolerant, as nests are in shade and air temperatures are often below freezing at night and during storms.

Flight is strong and direct, often undulating; including during lengthy aerial displays by males. Undulating flight consists of several quick wing-beats followed by long, graceful glides, for long flights, similar to other cardueline finches. Flocks in flight are coordinated like shorebirds, wheeling and turning in synchrony. Flocks foraging on snow surface in summer or along a highway in winter often move forward in leap-frog fashion. Young birds form flocks in August, earlier than do adults.

All Rosy-Finches possess paired sacs, called buccal sacs, beneath the floor of their mouths, found only in one other North American genus (Pinicola). In addition to their crops, this added space allows parents to carry more food with each trip to the young; making longer flights cost-effective and allowing parents to search for food over a wider area… as far as 2.5 miles from the nest; a good thing in their sometimes barren environment.

Rosy-finches carry extra fat in winter; adding about three grams more than their average summer weight, which helps them survive the bitter cold where they live. The buccal sacs not present in winter, but the bird fills its crop before entering roost to provide enough energy to survive long winter nights, where ambient temperatures
are often well below minus -20F.

While these Finches were visiting my yard, I was surprised that when I went out to spread more seed, birds returned while I stood only 3-4 feet from them. They seemed very tame. Then I read that females on nests often allow approach by an observer to within a foot of them before flushing and may attempt to return to nest while nest contents are being examined. At one nest visited often, the female did not flush when she was pushed by hand from her. The apparent reason for this ‘tame’ behavior is that they breed so far from human populations and have not learned to be afraid. The broken-wing act not reported for Blacks or Brown-capped, but is known for Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch; but I don’t know that it was used during human involvement.

A group of rosy-finches are collectively known as a "bouquet of finches”.

Resources
• The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America – David Allen Sibley
• Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America – Ted Floyd
• Western Birds – Roger Tory Peterson
• Birds of North America-Online from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• WhatBird.com - Field Guide to Birds of North America – also from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• USGS.gov - Science for a Changing World

Photos are mine...except the one noted