 |
| Study of Mealy Redpolls in John Gould's The Birds of Great Britain (1873) |
THE 2024 announcement by the International Ornithological Committee that there should only be one Redpoll species meant that two previously recognised separate species were to be lost from the British List.
In recent times, comprehensive bird field guides often referrred to:
* Arctic Redpoll Acanthis hornemanni, including two subspecies: 'Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll' A h hornemanni and 'Coues's Arctic Redpoll' A h exilipes;
* Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea, including three subspecies: 'Mealy Redpoll' A f flammea, 'Icelandic Redpoll' A f islandica and 'Greenland Redpoll' A f rostrata;
* Lesser Redpoll Acanthis cabaret.
However, the IOC decided to lump them together on the basis of genetic analysis which indicated that Redpolls "are almost completely undifferentiated except for a single chromosomal inversion that does not prevent interbreeding".
Turn back the page of ornithology to 1912 when four frontline ornithologists - Ernst Hartert, Francis Jourdain,Norman Ticehurst and H.F. Witherby - differentiated between no fewer than six Redpoll species in their publication, A Handlist of British Birds:
MEALY REDPOLL (Carduelis linaria linaria)
Distribution in British Isles: irregular autumn- winter visitor along whole east coast Great Britain; more common East Scotland and North-east England. Occasionally arrives in great numbers, as in 1829, 1847, 1855, 1861, 1863, 1873, 1885, 1897, 1910. More rarely recorded spring. Elsewhere in Great Britain rare winter-straggler, as it is in Ireland, where it appears chiefly in western islands.
GREENLAND REDPOLL (Carduelis linaria rostrata)
Distribution in British Isles: Rare vagrant:
* Barra (0uter. Hebrides):
* One, Oct. 8, 1896
* One, Nov. 10, 1898
One, Oct. 13, 1900;
* Two, Sept., 1901.
Fair Isle:
* A number in Sept and Oct, 1905
* Small party Sept. 21, 1907.
* Shetlands:
* Several Oct. and Nov., 1907.
It is said to nest in Orkneys, but rare at any time in Ireland.
Flocks are said to arrive on the Yorkshire coast in October, and it becomes more generally common on the East Coast in winter.
HOLBOLL'S REDPOLL (Carduelis linaria holboelli)
Distribution in British Isles: Vagrant:
* One, Aston Clinton (Bucks.), Dec. 14, 1895
* Flock in Yorks, 1881
* A number, Fair Isle autumn 1910.
* Two Shetlands, Oct. 28, 1910.
* One Isle of May (Forth) Oct. 23, 1910.
* A number Lothians, Oct., 1910.
* One Cambridge, Dec. 12, 1910.
LESSER REDPOLL (Carduelis linaria cabaret)
Distribution in England and Wales: Resident. Breeds most counties, but locally and especially so in southern England and Wales, and very sparingly in South-west England, while in extreme South-west it is rare even in autumn and winter when it becomes more generally distributed elsewhere. Scotland: Resident. More generally distributed in wooded districts than in England, but uncommon in NMorth-west, and appears not to breed in Caithness. Breeds sparingly in Inner Hebrides and has nested on Barra (Outer Hebrides).
HORNEMANN'S REDPOLL (Carduelis hornemannii hornemanni)
Distribution in Great Britain: Very rare vagrant. Specimens from Spurn (Yorks.), Oct., 1883, and Oct., 1893, have been assigned to this form. Also
* One near Whitburn (Durham), April 24
* Five Fair Isle, Sept. and Oct., 1905
* One Unst (Shetlands), Oct., 1905
COUES'S REDPOLL (Carduelis hornemanni exilipes)
Distribution in Great Britain: A very rare vagrant. A specimen assigned to this form occurred at Easington (Yorks.) in winter 1893-4, two others at Skeffling (Yorks.) on Dec. 30, 1898, and one on Fair Isle in autumn 1900.
However, did the birders of the day sort them all out?!
.jpg.webp)
