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African Crimson-Winged Finch | Rhodopechys alienus
Atlaswoestijnvink | Camachuelo alirrojo africano
African Crimson-winged Finch is the crimson-winged finch of the high mountains of the Maghreb, a bulky, heavy-billed finch with pink in the wing. Under AviList it is a species in its own right, split from Crimson-winged Finch of the Levant and Asia; it occurs only in Morocco and Algeria.
Voice
The call is a soft, rolling dvoo-ee or a short chee-rup, in flight a chirping chip. The song is a short, melodious, somewhat babbling phrase from a boulder.
Recording: Stanislas Wroza — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
15–17 cm. Stocky, with a large head, a heavy yellow to horn-coloured conical bill and a short, slightly forked tail. Sandy grey-brown with faint streaking on the back and a greyer head and neck. The male has a pink wash on cheek and breast, a bright rose-red panel on the greater coverts and the edges of the flight feathers, and white-edged outer tail feathers. Chin and throat are grey-white with a pink tinge, bordered by a narrow brown breast band; black on the crown is absent or restricted to the forehead. The uppertail coverts are not pink, at most wine-tinged in fresh plumage. The female is duller with less pink.
Confusion species
Crimson-winged Finch (Rhodopechys sanguineus) of the Levant does not occur in the same area; the male has a blackish-brown crown, a uniform brown throat and breast, pink uppertail coverts and often black spots on the breast sides. Trumpeter Finch (Bucanetes githagineus) is much smaller and rounder, with a short coral-red bill and no bright wing panel. Eurasian Linnet (Linaria cannabina) is much slimmer and has white patches in wing and tail and a dark bill.
Habitat
Bare, stony slopes, alpine grassland and rocky plateaus above the tree line, with cushion plants and scattered scrub, from about 1800 to over 3500 m. It feeds on the ground on seeds and visits water daily. In winter in flocks on lower slopes, in valleys and on fields.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
Endemic to the Maghreb: the High and Middle Atlas of Morocco and locally the higher mountains of northern Algeria, including the Aurès; old reports from the Saharan Atlas are few. Not found elsewhere.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Oukaïmeden in the High Atlas is the classic site: in the early morning small groups feed on the alpine meadows and at the pools around the ski station. In winter also lower down in the valleys of the High Atlas.
Conservation status
The population is small and fragmented and therefore vulnerable to overgrazing and climate change in the high mountains; recreation and ski tourism around Oukaïmeden cause local disturbance. As a separate species it is still little studied, and little is known about population size.
Scientific name
Rhodopechys alienus | Whitaker, 1897
Whitaker described the species in 1897 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Rhodopechys was introduced in 1851 by Cabanis. Rhodopechys is Greek, from rhodon 'rose' and pēkhus 'forearm', together rhodopēkhus 'rosy-armed', after the pink in the wing. alienus is Latin for 'foreign, different', as this North African form differs from the Asian Crimson-winged Finch. The specimen the first description was based on came from Morocco.