The Arctic Redpoll known in North America as the Hoary Redpoll, is a bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 species in the finch family Fringillidae. It breeds in tundra

Tundra

In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...

 birch forest. It has two subspecies, C. h. hornemanni (Greenland or Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll) of Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

 and neighbouring parts of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and C. h. exilipes (Coues's Arctic Redpoll), which breeds in the tundra of northern North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and Eurasia

Eurasia

Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...

. Many birds remain in the far north; some birds migrate short distances south in winter, sometimes travelling with Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

The Common Redpoll is a species in the finch family. It breeds somewhat further south than the Arctic Redpoll, also in habitats with thickets or shrubs. Nominate C. f. flammea breeds across the northern parts of North America and Eurasia. There is also an Icelandic subspecies, Icelandic Redpoll...

s.

The Greenland race is a very large and pale bird, with the male sometimes described as a "snowball", but both forms are pale with small beaks, white rumps and often more yellow than grey-brown tones in their plumage. The females are more streaked on their breasts, sides and rumps, but are still pale.

The binomial commemorates the Danish botanist Jens Wilken Hornemann

Jens Wilken Hornemann

Jens Wilken Hornemann was a Danish botanist.-Biography:He was a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1801. After the death of Martin Vahl in 1804, the task of publishing the Flora Danica was given to Hornemann, who subsequently issued fasc. 22-39 with a total of 1080...

.

The phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al.

External links

• Oiseaux Photos, text, map.
• IBC Two videos (search – Hoary Redpoll)
• Hoary Redpoll, All About Birds