Tuesday 22 January 2013

Hey, Mr. Tangerine Man

Yesterday I came across the orangest Greenfinch I've ever seen, brighter even than any I've handled in Spain. The picture shows two adult males, 'normal' yellow on the left.


Clocking in at a mighty 33.6 gm, he's the heaviest I've ever had too, beating the second heaviest - the bird on the left - by 1.2 gm. Apart from these two, the heaviest I've had was 31.6 gm, a bird in Aberdeenshire in December 2006. Neither of these two was exceptionally long winged, at 91 and 89 mm, and neither was carrying any significant amount of fat.

1 comment:

  1. A search in BWP reveals the interesting fact that the southern European form is ssp. aurantiiventris . For those of us whose classics are a little rusty, this means 'orange bottom'.

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