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Painted Finch (Emblema pictum) Alternate name(s): "Painted Firetail", "Painted Firetail Finch", "Emblema", "Emblema Finch", "Mountain Finch" Aboriginal name(s): "unchurunquar" Size: 10.5-11.5 cm Body mass: 10-12 g

Australia: Family Group 24 Family Group 24 Table Horsfield's Bushlark Australian Pipit Eastern Yellow Wagtail Citrine Wagtail Grey Wagtail White Wagtail Zebra Finch Double-barred Finch Long-tailed Finch Black-throated Finch Masked Finch Crimson Finch Plum-headed Finch Pictorella Mannikin Chestnut-breasted Mannikin Yellow-rumped Mannikin Blue-faced Parrot-Finch Diamond Firetail Beautiful Firetail Red-eared Firetail Painted Finch Star Finch Red-browed Finch Gouldian Finch Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds Australi home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Painted Finches are small to medium-sized finches. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are slightly different. Male Painted Finches have a red facial mask and a red patch on their chest, which is less pronounced in females. Females also have only a small red patch around each eye. The rest of the head of both sexes is brownish-grey. Also the back, from neck to upperwings, is brownish-grey. Only the rump is red, while the uppertail is black. The front is black with prominent white spots on the sides. Females have more white spots down the front than males. The vent and undertail are also black. The eyes have grey irises. The bill is narrow and pointy, with a mostly dark-grey upper mandible with a reddish tip and a reddish lower mandible with a whitish base. The legs and feet are pinkish-grey. Juveniles are all dark brownish-grey, except for a dark-red rump. They do not have any red on the face yet.

Taxonomy, classification See Painted Finch at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Painted Finch is available HERE . NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species. Painted Finches are endemic to the Australian continent. They live in the semi-arid to arid interior, from the tropic of Capricorn to the South-East of Mt. Isa, QLD, via Mt. Isa and the QLD/NT border westwards, up to Derby, WA. Southward, their range extends throughout the south-western quarter of the NT, up to Alice Springs, NT, and sometimes also towards the Lake Eyre Basin in central SA. In the West their range continues through the major sandy deserts of WA (where they are only found rarely) into the Gascoyne, i.e. the entire north-western part of WA, encompassing the catchments of the three major rivers there. Painted Finches have a preference for stony habitats, often hills or gorges and also for Triodia ("Spinifex") plains.

Sightings Click here for sighting information M. Mearns reports spotting ringed, but free-flying Painted Finches at the Desert Wildlife Park, Alice Springs, NT, in June 2006. B. Hensen reports finding Painted Finches at Simpsons Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, in July 2018. M. Eaton found Painted Finches at Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, QLD, in June 2021 and again in June 2025, and in the township of Mount Isa, QLD, in July 2021. P. Brown reports finding Painted Finches in Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin, NT, in April 2022. This location is several hundred kilometers out of range for the species, which normally stays much farther southward.

Photos

ADULT

PAIR

Frontal view of a pair of Painted Finches, male on the right (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Simpsons Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Male, right, and female Painted Finch (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Simpsons Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Male Painted Finch, front, female at far left, in comparison with a Zebra Finch (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Simpsons Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

MALE

Frontal view of a male Painted Finch looking sideways; note the extensive red facial mask and frontal markings
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Near-frontal view of a male Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Warrigal Waterhole, Mount Isa, QLD, June 2025]

Near-lateral view of a male Painted Finch looking towards the observer (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Near-lateral view of a male Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Lateral view of a male Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Lateral view of a male Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Lateral view of a male Painted Finch (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Simpsons Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a male Painted Finch (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Simpsons Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Dorsal view of a male Painted Finch looking sideways (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Warrigal Waterhole, Mount Isa, QLD, June 2025]

FEMALE

Frontal view of a female Painted Finch; note the subdued facial mask and black front with copious white spots
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Simpsons Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Near-frontal view of a female Painted Finch (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Simpsons Gap, near Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Lateral view of a female Painted Finch on rocky soil (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Desert Wildlife Park, Alice Springs, NT, June 2006]

Lateral view of a female Painted Finch on rocky soil, now seen preening (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Desert Wildlife Park, Alice Springs, NT, June 2006]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Near-frontal view of a juvenile Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, QLD, June 2021]

(Near-)lateral view of 3 juvenile Painted Finches (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, QLD, June 2021]

Near-lateral view of a juvenile Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, QLD, June 2021]

Lateral view of a juvenile Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, QLD, June 2021]

Lateral view of a juvenile Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, QLD, June 2021]

Near-dorsal view of a preening juvenile Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, QLD, June 2021]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: ?

Mobility: Sedentary

Elementary unit: Pair/mob

Painted Finches have been found by us using primarily two postures, alert and relaxed, as shown below.

Near-frontal view of a male Painted Finch in alert stance (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Near-lateral view of a male Painted Finch in alert stance (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Lateral view of a male Painted Finch in alert stance (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Near-frontal view of a male Painted Finch in relaxed stance (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Near-lateral view of a male Painted Finch in relaxed stance (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Food, Diet

Painted Finches foraging between rocks (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Desert Wildlife Park, Alice Springs, NT, June 2006]

Lateral view of a male Painted Finch drinking water (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mount Isa, QLD, July 2021]

Lateral view of a female Painted Finch drinking water (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Warrigal Waterhole, Mount Isa, QLD, June 2025]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

pntfnch_me_20210722.m4a

(W QLD)

Contact calls?

© ME

More Painted Finch sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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