Brambling

1 Brambling Breed Overview

The Brambling is fairly widely distributed and is a small bird about 16 cm in length. It usually moves in flocks, pairing up only during the breeding season, and typically roosts in trees. Because it pecks crops, it causes some agricultural harm.

This species has been listed in the ‘List of Terrestrial Wildlife of Important Economic or Scientific Value Under State Protection’ issued by the State Forestry Administration on August 1, 2000.

Listed in the IUCN 2012 Red List of Threatened Species ver 3.1 — Least Concern (LC).

Chinese name: Brambling

Chinese aliases: Tiger Finch

English name: Brambling

Binomial name: Fringilla montifringilla

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Aves

Subclass: Neornithes

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Fringillidae

Genus: Fringilla

Species: Brambling

Distribution: Distributed across northern Europe and Asia, from Norway to Kamchatka, southern Europe, China, etc.; mostly inhabits plains, hills, and mountains, and lives in various woods such as willow groves, elm groves, subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests, mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests, and coniferous forests.

2 Brambling Physical Characteristics

The Brambling is a small-bodied bird; the ideal adult body length is 14–17 cm. The juvenile resembles the female. Iris brown or dark brown, bill base horn-yellow, bill tip black, legs dark brown.

In breeding plumage the male has a gray-black forehead, crown, sides of head, nape, hindneck, back, inner secondaries and tertials, and longest uppertail coverts, more or less suffused with blue. Shoulders, wing median coverts, tips of greater coverts, rump, and uppertail coverts are white; wing lesser coverts rust-brown; primaries black-brown with paler bases. Tail black, outer tail feathers with faint pale spots. Chin, throat, and upper breast rust-brown; lower breast, belly, flanks, and undertail coverts white; newly molted feathers have the black upperparts edged with rust (not lost until May). Shoulders rust, greater coverts tipped ochre, flight feathers and tail feathers with pale outer edges. In winter plumage the forehead, crown to nape are blue-black with a metallic blue sheen and brownish-yellow terminal edges; cheeks, around the eyes, and ear coverts black with sandy-brown feather tips; hindneck to upper back black with gray-white feather bases and brown terminal edges. Lower back, rump, and uppertail coverts white; longest uppertail coverts black with brown-yellow tips; tail feathers black with narrow brown-white edges. Flight feathers black-brown; primaries and secondaries except the first have a green-yellow narrow edge on the outer web midpoint; tertial tips with a broad brown-red outer edge. Shoulder and wing lesser coverts gray-based with orange-yellow tips; median coverts brown-white; greater coverts black with brown tips. Chin, throat, and upper breast orange-yellow; lower breast and belly white; undertail coverts white tinged brown, brown-white to brown-yellow; flanks pale brown with black spots; axillaries and underwing coverts pale brown. The female’s spring-summer plumage is similar to the male’s but paler, with the black upperparts replaced by brown and pale edges, and head and back with faint streaks. The autumn-winter plumage is similar to the male’s autumn plumage but darker and less vivid; crown to upper back black-brown with dark red-brown edges; lower back to rump gray-white; tail light black with white narrow edges; chin and throat sandy-brown; upper breast dark orange-brown with gray-brown tips; lower breast, belly, and undertail coverts gray-white.

3 Brambling Living Environment

In the wild, the Brambling mainly inhabits lush forests, especially during the breeding season. During migration and winter it mainly inhabits farmlands and orchards, probably for the convenience of eating the crops farmers work hard to grow.

Pet Bramblings should get a sunbath around 10 a.m. each winter day. Because this bird does not like water baths, change the bath-cup water often so it gradually adapts to water bathing. In summer, note that the Brambling is fairly cold-hardy but not heat-tolerant; from early summer, stop the sunbath, and because it begins molting, place it somewhere dark and cool.

4 Brambling Care Tips

In the harvest autumn, Bramblings peck crops, which is very harmful to agriculture; many farmers then take measures to drive them away. During the breeding season they also eat pests, benefiting the forest.

The Brambling is easy to tame and can be kept as an ornamental bird or a performing bird. In the wild, it enters the breeding season in early June each year, building nests in pine and fir trees. The nest is very fine, cup-shaped, woven from weeds and fine roots, coated outside with moss and spider silk, and lined inside with feathers and down. Eggs are brown-white or blue-green, speckled with red-brown or black-brown spots. However, there has been no successful case of artificial breeding of the Brambling to date.

5 Brambling Feeding Guidelines

In the wild the Brambling likes to eat crops, so pet keeping can reference its wild habits. The Brambling is also fairly smart; a well-tamed male can even be crossbred with a canary to produce new ornamental varieties.

This bird prefers the fatty perilla seed (su zi); normally feed a mix of 40% perilla seed, 40% barnyard millet, and 20% foxtail millet, supplemented with plenty of greens and fresh water. Feeding can be varied. Too monotonous a diet causes nutritional deficiency and reduced appetite. The Brambling can also be taught to catch objects and to free-fly.