Stats

Lifespan: 2-11 yrs
Size: Small
Diet: Herbivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Flock
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: North America
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Speed
Status: Common

About

A small North American songbird where males flush rosy red on the head and breast — a colour they synthesise directly from carotenoids in their diet, so the brightness of any individual male reflects what he has been eating. Originally a bird of the arid west, it has spread across the continent largely by hitching rides on backyard feeders.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A small clutch of speckled eggs is incubated in a cup nest, turned and kept warm by the parent.
2.
hatchling
A pink, blind hatchling is fed by its parents in the nest, gaping its bill at every visit.
3.
juvenile
A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest, learning to fly and to forage close to its parents.
4.
adult
Fully grown with adult plumage and song.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Genus: Haemorhous
Species: Haemorhous mexicanus