The Sociable Red-fronted serin

INTRODUCTION

Serinus (canaries) is a genus of finches belonging to the Fringillidae family of birds. That includes several sparrows, brambling and chaffinches. The major birds are vibrant and beautifully colored and are favorites of bird watchers.

IDENTIFICATION

Red-fronted serin or fire-fronted serin (Serinus pusillus) is a distinctive, diminutive, dark little finch of the mountains of Asia Minor and the Caucasus. Unlikely to be confused, the adult has the front half of the body blackish, extending into streaks down the flanks and rump, with a blaze of fiery red on the forehead.

The juvenile bird is very different but more or less equally distinctive, with blackish being replaced by warm tawny-brown on the head, throat, and breast and no red patch on the forehead. This might possibly be confused with the local race, Brevirostris of Twite. That has blackish breast sides, but young Red-fronted Serin is more heavily streaked with blackish both above and below; the warm tawny-brown on the head and breast is quite clearly demarcated.

The slightly pale wing bars are tinged with cinnamon, and both the pale panel on the closed wing formed by the primary edges and the edges of the tail feathers are yellow-green instead of white.

SEX/AGE

The adult female bird has less red on the forehead than the male, and the blackness of the plumage is a bit duller. Both males and females have narrow pale fringes to black feathering in fresh plumage in autumn.

The juvenile bird is distinctive because it has pale chestnut rather than pale orange or greenish-yellow wing bars; it gradually acquires adult plumage during the latter half of the first winter, but some retain tawny-brown on the head and show little red into the first summer. Habitually retain pale chestnut-tipped juvenile outer greater coverts.

VOICE

Red-fronted serin call: soft tinkling trills (‘firrrrrrrrrr’) are constantly uttered as birds move about hillsides. It also gives a soft ‘dueet’. Red-fronted Serin song is a subdued, rather squeaky, bubbling Twitter interspersed with sustained rippling trills and hoarse ‘kveeeh’ notes, usually delivered from elevated perch related to Linnet.

HABITAT

The red-fronted serin is a small passerine bird but very sociable, twittering flocks feeding on weedy ground on mountain slopes and in adjoining conifers, seemingly constantly on the move. Fire-fronted serin is fairly common, and it breeds on scrubby, grassy, and rocky mountain slopes with scattered junipers, stands of conifers, or low rhododendrons in the alpine zone, descending lower in winter (sometimes reaching foothills or extending out onto high plains).

Fire-fronted Serin is 12 cm in length.  If water is available, this bird prefers to bathe daily, breed in captivity, and flourish on the diet of millet, small seeds, and canary grass seed. Renowned cage birds are found throughout Europe.