Black-headed greenfinch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Black-headed greenfinch |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Chloris
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| Species: |
ambigua
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| Synonyms | |
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Carduelis ambigua |
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The black-headed greenfinch (its scientific name is Chloris ambigua) is a small songbird. It belongs to the finch family, called Fringillidae.
You can find this bird in parts of Asia. It lives in places like Yunnan province in China, northern Laos, eastern Myanmar, and nearby areas of Vietnam, Thailand, and Northeast India. These birds like to live in warm, dry places. Their homes are often subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrublands.
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What Does the Black-headed Greenfinch Look Like?
This finch is a medium-sized bird. It is about 12.4 to 14 centimeters long. That's about the length of a small pencil.
It has a dark head that looks blackish-olive. Its beak is a pale pinkish-brown color and shaped like a cone. You can also spot a bright yellow patch on its wings. Both male and female black-headed greenfinches look very similar.
Understanding the Black-headed Greenfinch's Name
The black-headed greenfinch was first described in 1896. A French zoologist named Émile Oustalet gave it its first scientific name, Chysomitris ambigua.
How Bird Names Change Over Time
In the past, this bird was grouped with other greenfinches. They were all part of a larger group called Carduelis. But scientists now use special studies to look at bird DNA. These studies are called molecular phylogenetic studies. They showed that greenfinches are not very closely related to the other birds in the Carduelis group.
So, scientists decided to move the greenfinches to a different group. This group is called Chloris. A French naturalist named Georges Cuvier first used this name way back in 1800.
Meaning of the Scientific Name
The word Chloris comes from an old Greek word. Khloris was the name for the European greenfinch. The second part of the name, ambigua, comes from Latin. It means "doubtful."
Different Types of Black-headed Greenfinches
Scientists recognize two main types, or subspecies, of the black-headed greenfinch:
- C. a. taylori (Kinnear, 1939) – This type lives in southeast Tibet.
- C. a. ambigua (Oustalet, 1896) – This type is found in east and northeast Myanmar, southern China, Laos, and the very northeast part of India.
