European greenfinch
| European greenfinch | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Male above, female below | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Fringillidae |
| Subfamily: | Carduelinae |
| Genus: | Chloris |
| Species: | C. chloris |
| Binomial name | |
|
Chloris chloris (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Carduelis chloris |
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Carduelis chloris
The European greenfinch, or just greenfinch (Chloris chloris) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.
This bird is widespread throughout Europe, north Africa and south west Asia. It is mainly resident, but some northernmost populations migrate further south. The greenfinch has also been introduced into both Australia and New Zealand. In Malta, it is considered a prestigious song bird, and it has been trapped for many years. It has been domesticated, and many Maltese people breed them.
The greenfich was described by Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name of Loxia chloris. The scientific name is from khloris, the Ancient Greek name for this bird, from khloros, "green".
The finch family, Fringillidae, is divided into two subfamilies, the Carduelinae, containing around 28 genera with 141 species and the Fringillinae containing a single genus, Fringilla, with 3 species. The finch family are all seed-eaters with stout conical bills. They have similar skull morphologies, nine large primaries, twelve tail feathers and no crop. In all species the female bird builds the nest, incubates the eggs and broods the young. Fringilline finches raise their young almost entirely on arthropods while the cardueline finches raise their young on regurgitated seeds.
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Wikipedia