h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Goldfinches - A87847375
Author: Gnomon - U151503

A bird entry

Has no-one commented on this in peer review? I think it's a delightful entry about a delightful bird.

I'm not sure about 'probably the most brightly coloured bird in Britain and Ireland'. That honour might go to the kingfisher.

I know you said you were doubtful about using group names like 'charm' but I think it's safe for goldfinches. Outside the breeding season, they can often be seen in small flocks, sometimes called charms.

I've rephrased it as:

'one of the most brightly coloured birds to be seen in Britain and Ireland'

I've added your sentence about charms, thanks.

I only dabbled a little in ornithology as a ten-year-old (or so) but I seem to remember that there is something about the beak which makes a finch a finch. Could you include a mention of the shape of the beak in the description, please?

(If you think it's appropriate)

I've put "Like most other finch species, they have strong, stubby beaks, which they use to eat seeds and insects. "

I've discovered that you can actually legally keep goldfinches in the UK, but only if they are bred in captivity. I've added that detail.

I checked their conservation status. They're on the green list - so not under any threat.

Gnomon, all I got for your picture was an ad for the photo service, but I did find pictures of UK goldfinches on google images and they are rather more party coloured than the US ones which are mostly the bright yellow all over with black caps. I guess the gold is the most striking colour or at least the brightest, but they are lovely!

Sorry about that Elektra. I don't know why you shouldn't be able to see it on Flickr, so I've put a copy of it on my own website and have changed the link in the entry. You should be able to see it now.

Thanks for the adjustment----but now my antivirus is protesting and blocking it.

I enjoyed this, as I've been getting into birdwatching recently - excellent textportrait, and an excellent photo too

What does the triple Latin name signify? I don't think I've seen one before, but then again I probably have in relation to plants, but it did make me do a double take to see the same word for each term in the classification...

What does it mean that they live for a maximum of 11 years? Is that the age of the oldest known bird?

The name is from the Latin for thistles that's all I remember

Sasha, it is unusual to have a Latin name that is three words long but it does occasionally happen
As I understand it, the first two words are the definitive name whereas the third is usually added to identify a subspecies. How this applies to the European goldfinch I'd need to do a bit of snooping.

The age of birds is taken from bird ringing.

It is good science but difficult as ringing is only performed at a limited number of places globally, although the UK probably has more ringing sites tgan anywhere (needs proving). They tend to be at sites where there is a good chance of catching a large number of birds by use of must nets. These are very fine mesh nets that have frills or pockets every so often do the birds don't get injured and are often on major migration routes. By keeping records of the rings of birds when trapped, the age of bird species can be determined.

With popular birds this can be reasonably accurate, such as goldfinch, but harder for rarer birds.

I believe the longest living bird is a Manx shesrwater.

MMF

On investigation, I was right with the oldest bird bring a tubenose but it is actually a Laysan albatross at 111 years, although reports of parrots being older have been noted.

As for the trinomial Latin naming, the third name indicates a subspecies so Cardeulis cardeulis cardeulis is the Western European goldfinch, while here in Great Britain we have a specific subspecies of our own, Cardeulis cardeulis brittanicus.

The entry is written about the Western European species.

Here is a listing I found from the BTO.

Carduelis carduelis carduelis: W and c Europe; winters to Mediterranean and Black Sea
Carduelis carduelis parva: Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and w Mediterranean region
Carduelis carduelis tschusii: Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily
Carduelis carduelis britannica: British Isles, Channel Islands and w Netherlands
Carduelis carduelis balcanica: S Yugoslavia to Bulgaria, Greece and Crete
Carduelis carduelis loudoni: N Iran (Talysh Mountains to Elburz Mountains)
Carduelis carduelis colchica: Crimean Peninsula to Caucasus and ne Turkey
Carduelis carduelis frigoris: SW Siberia (Ural Mountains to Yenisey River)
Carduelis carduelis niediecki: Rhodes, Karpathos, Cyprus; Egypt to Asia Minor, n Iraq,

sw Iran
Carduelis carduelis caniceps: W Himalayas (Kashmir to Nepal and w Tibet)
Carduelis carduelis paropanisi: Iran to n Afghanistan and w China (Xinjiang)
Carduelis carduelis subulata: S-central Siberia to Lake Baikal and nw Mongolia

Thanks for the details, MMF - that makes sense (didn't realise there were so many subspecies).

Interesting about the ringing of birds, too - I had wondered about how birds could stay safe if caught by net, so that's good to know

I don't want to get into the details of sub-species. Should I just use two names instead of three?

I would be tempted to leave the three names and just give a footnote that the third name is the sub-species, identifying it as European, there are several others with different third names.

Just a thought.

F S

Personally, Gnomon, I agree with FS, otherwise you are potentially implying the entry refers to one subspecies as a specific, and that other subspecies may not follow that criteria.

It is unfortunate you picked a species that has so many sub-species, but as Charles Darwin found out, that is the problem, or beauty, of finches.

Otherwise, would we have had the knowledge of evolution when we did?

Or does that open a whole new ?

MMF

I've added a footnote to Carduelis carduelis carduelis:

The third name in the scientific designation indicates a sub-species. Carduelis is the most common sub-species but there are a number of others.

I've also added a sentence to the section on the St Valentine's Day tradition:

It's unclear what it meant if she saw a different bird from the previous year.