Star Finch
Emblema ruficauda
Bright green finch with brilliant red face and bill and numerous small pale spots on face, chest, flanks, and base of tail. Compare longer-tailed female Crimson Finch, which is much browner and less heavily spotted. Often found in very large flocks in grasslands and reedbeds of northeastern Western Australia and northwestern Northern Territory; rarer in Darwin/Kakadu region.
Identification
The star finch is an estrildid finch, between 10 and 12 cm in length, with crimson fore-parts of the head and a scarlet bill. The upper and lower plumage is yellow-green, white spotted on the underparts, the belly more yellow. The upper tail coverts are scarlet, tail feathers are brownish scarlet. The female has less crimson on the head, and generally duller than the male, the immature star finch is olive to brownish with a grey face and head.<p>The broad white spots under its chin and down its flanks give rise to its common name. It has a wingspan of between 49 and 56 mm, a bill length between 11 and 13 mm, and weighs between 10 and 12 grams.
Taxonomy
Synonyms for the scientific name Bathilda ruficauda include Poephila ruficauda and Neochmia ruficauda.<p>The species is also referred to as red-faced firetail, red-tailed finch, or ruficauda finch. The common name, red-tailed finch, was first used by Gould (1884) and was in near universal use from Hall (1899) until 1926 when the term star finch appeared in the Royal Australasian Ornithological Union's (RAOU) second Official Checklist with no explanation for the change.<p>Hombron and Jacquinot first encountered these birds when they stopped off in Australia as part the French expedition to Antarctica of 1837–1840, traveling aboard the Astrolabe. While Hombron initially placed the bird in the genus Erythura, he indicated that the short legs of the bird could necessitate a new genus, Neochimia. Gray adopted the name in 1849. Derived from the Greek, neokhmos meaning new it signifies "new bird".<p>Gould's species name, ruficauda, is from the Latin rufus meaning red and cauda meaning tail.<p>Three subspecies have been described:
- Scientific name
- Emblema ruficauda
- Authority
- (Gould, 1837)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Estrildidae
- Genus
- Emblema
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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