mdahlem.net WWW

Aust birds    Bird names   News   1-26    Habitats    Key plants    Glossary    Plumage    Nests    Tips    Thumbnails    Gen. info    Sponsors    Photos for sale
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14	15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   W   Y

24

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 Weight: 10-12 g

Australia: Family Group 24 Family Group 24 Table Singing Bushlark Australian Pipit Grey Wagtail White Wagtail Zebra Finch Double-barred Finch Long-tailed Finch Black-throated Finch Masked Finch Crimson Finch Plum-headed Finch Chestnut-breasted Mannikin Yellow-rumped Mannikin Diamond Firetail Beautiful Firetail Red-eared Firetail Painted 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 females lack. The rest of the head is brownish-grey. Also the back, from neck to upperwings, is brownish-grey. Only the rump is red and the uppertail is black. The front is black with prominent white spots on the sides. 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.

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 based on sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Painted Finch is available HERE . 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 Alice Spings Desert Park, Alice Springs, NT, in June 2006. All photographic and sighting information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by M. Mearns.

Photos

ADULT

MALE

Frontal view of a snoozing male Painted Finch (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Alice Spings Desert Park, Alice Springs, NT, June 2006]

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

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

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

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.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us:          Last updated: 7 Sep. 2017.