Redpoll

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Redpoll by Kyle Tansley / Macaulay Library

Finches

RedpollAcanthis flammea

ORDER: Passeriformes
FAMILY: Fringillidae

Basic Description

As energetic as their electric zapping call notes would suggest, Redpolls are active foragers that travel in busy flocks. Look for them feeding on catkins in birch trees or visiting feeders in winter. These small finches of the arctic tundra and boreal forest migrate erratically, and they occasionally show up in large numbers as far south as the central U.S. During such irruption years, Redpolls often congregate at bird feeders (particularly thistle or nyjer seed), allowing delightfully close looks.

More ID Info

Year-roundBreedingMigrationNonbreeding

Range map provided by Birds of the World

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Find This Bird

Most people in North America get to see Redpolls only in the winter, when the birds come to feeders or forage on small seeds in trees or in weedy fields. Listen for their sharp, buzzy call notes and energetic trills and chatters. Keep in mind that they often form fairly large flocks that seem constantly in motion.

Other Names

Pardillo Sizerín (Spanish)
Sizerin flammé (French)

Backyard Tips

Redpolls eat seeds of a size to match their small bills. They’re particularly likely to come to thistle or nyjer feeders, though they may also take black oil sunflower or scavenge opened seeds left behind by larger-billed birds. Find out more about what this bird likes to eat and what feeder is best by using the Project FeederWatch Common Feeder Birds bird list.

Cool Facts
- In 2024, ornithologists lumped Common Redpoll, Hoary Redpoll, and Lesser Redpoll (a European species) into a single species known simply as Redpoll. Despite color and size differences between the three forms, they are nearly identical genetically, with a single chromosomal inversion (or "supergene") responsible for visible variation. Read more in Redpolls United! Highlights from the 2024 AOS Checklist Update.
- During winter, some Redpolls tunnel into the snow to stay warm during the night. Tunnels may be more than a foot long and 4 inches under the insulating snow.
- Next time you have access to a globe, take a look at it from the top. Redpolls breed around the world in the lands that ring the Arctic Ocean. There’s a lot of land up there! Though many of us struggle to see a few Redpolls each winter, worldwide their numbers are estimated in the hundreds of millions.
- Animal behaviorists commonly test an animal’s intelligence by seeing if it can pull in a string to get at a hanging piece of food. Redpolls pass this test with no trouble. They’ve also been seen shaking the seeds out of birch catkins, then dropping to the ground to pick them up from the flat snow surface.
- Redpolls can store seeds in pouches in their esophagus (known as diverticula). Kind of like a chipmunk stashing seeds in its cheek, this lets them quickly collect seeds, then regurgitate them for husking and eating when they're back in a sheltered and safe spot.
- A few banding records have shown that some Redpolls are incredibly wide ranging. Among them, a bird banded in Michigan was recovered in Siberia; others in Alaska have been recovered in the eastern U.S., and a Redpoll banded in Belgium was found 2 years later in China.
- Redpolls can survive temperatures of –65 degrees Fahrenheit. A study in Alaska found Redpolls put on about 31 percent more plumage by weight in November than they did in July.
- The oldest known Redpoll was at least 7 years, 10 months old. It lived in Alaska and was injured when caught by a cat in 1990. Happily, it survived its injuries.