燕雀科科

外形

本科的鸟体形较小，外形似麻雀。锥状喙厚实有力，嘴峰隆起，上下嘴边缘平滑，闭合性好，这一点与鹀科的鸟有着明显的区别。本科中交嘴雀属的鸟喙的形态特殊。在解剖学上，角质腭两侧的纵棱平行，这是与文鸟科的重要区别点。尾羽12枚，初级飞羽10枚，但通常外侧的第一枚退化。

习性

本科的鸟鸣肌发达，善于鸣叫，有些种雌雄都善鸣叫。

本科的鸟多以植物的果实、种子为食，繁殖期时以昆虫哺育雏鸟。本科的鸟巧于营巢，常在树上或地面上筑巢。巢一般是开放式呈碗状。

本科的鸟是晚成雏。

与人类的关系

本科的鸟由于鸣叫动听、外形美丽，在世界各地深受人们的喜爱，也是深受鸟类买卖的危害。本科鸟由于食性复杂，容易饲养，也是人们喜欢的原因之一。

The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do not migrate. They have a worldwide native distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fifty genera. It includes the canaries, siskins, redpolls, serins, grosbeaks and euphonias, as well as the morphologically divergent Hawaiian honeycreepers.

Many birds in other families are also commonly called "finches". These groups include the estrildid finches (Estrildidae) of the Old World tropics and Australia; some members of the Old World bunting family (Emberizidae) and the New World sparrow family (Passerellidae); and the Darwin's finches of the Galapagos islands, now considered members of the tanager family (Thraupidae).

Finches and canaries were used in the UK, US and Canada in the coal mining industry to detect carbon monoxide from the eighteenth to twentieth century. This practice ceased in the UK in 1986.

Systematics and taxonomy

The name Fringillidae for the finch family was introduced in 1819 by the English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum. The taxonomy of the family, in particular the cardueline finches, has a long and complicated history. The study of the relationship between the taxa has been confounded by the recurrence of similar morphologies due to the convergence of species occupying similar niches. In 1968 the American ornithologist Raymond Andrew Paynter, Jr. wrote:

Description

The smallest "classical" true finches are the Andean siskin (Spinus spinescens) at as little as 9.5 cm (3.8 in) and the lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) at as little as 8 g (0.28 oz). The largest species is probably the collared grosbeak (Mycerobas affinis) at up to 24 cm (9.4 in) and 83 g (2.9 oz), although larger lengths, to 25.5 cm (10.0 in) in the pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator), and weights, to 86.1 g (3.04 oz) in the evening grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina), have been recorded in species which are slightly smaller on average.

Distribution and habitat

The finches have a near-global distribution, being found across the Americas, Eurasia and Africa, as well as some island groups such as the Hawaiian islands. They are absent from Australasia, Antarctica, the Southern Pacific and the islands of the Indian Ocean, although some European species have been widely introduced in Australia and New Zealand.

Finches are typically inhabitants of well-wooded areas, but some can be found on mountains or even in deserts.

Behaviour

The finches are primarily granivorous, but euphoniines include considerable amounts of arthropods and berries in their diet, and Hawaiian honeycreepers evolved to utilize a wide range of food sources, including nectar. The diet of Fringillidae nestlings includes a varying amount of small arthropods. True finches have a bouncing flight like most small passerines, alternating bouts of flapping with gliding on closed wings. Most sing well and several are commonly seen cagebirds; foremost among these is the domesticated canary (Serinus canaria domestica). The nests are basket-shaped and usually built in trees, more rarely in bushes, between rocks or on similar substrate.

List of genera

The family Fringillidae contains 235 species divided into 50 genera and three subfamilies. The subfamily Carduelinae includes 18 extinct Hawaiian honeycreepers and the extinct Bonin grosbeak. See List of Fringillidae species for further details.

• Subfamily Fringillinae
• Fringilla – 5 species of chaffinch, 2 species of blue chaffinch, and the brambling
• Subfamily Carduelinae
• Mycerobas – 4 Palearctic grosbeaks
• Hesperiphona – 2 species, evening grosbeak and hooded grosbeak
• Coccothraustes – hawfinch
• Eophona – 2 oriental grosbeaks, the Chinese and the Japanese grosbeak
• Pinicola – pine grosbeak
• Pyrrhula – 8 bullfinch species

Rhodopechys – 2 species, the Asian crimson-winged finch and the African crimson-winged finch