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Common Redpolls are small finches. Their plumage is highly cryptic and dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. The bill of male Common Redpolls is surrounded by a small dark ring, above which they have a red forehead, and below which their chest is red. They have prominent white supercilia above narrow black eye-stripes. The rest of the head, together with the ear coverts, the nape of the neck and the back down to the rump, is heavily streaked grey. Also the belly and the flanks are grey with heavy darker streaking. Part of the upperwing coverts are brown, streaked with dark-grey, whereas the rest of the wings and the tail are plain dark-grey, with very thin white edge-lining. The wings have a prominent white wing bar. Females look similar to males, but lack the red chest. Instead, they have brownish streaked flanks. Their supercilia are less prominent than those of males. The irises of both sexes are dark-brown. The bill is yellowish, while legs and feet are dark-grey. First-winter Common Redpolls resemble females.

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 Common Redpoll is available HERE .

Common Redpolls are a partly migratory, partly sedentary species. Depending on whether one includes the Lesser Redpoll as a race, there are 3 or 4 races. Taken altogether, they have a circumpolar distribution around the northern hemisphere, populating all the northern continents and islands in between. Nominate race "flammea" was the most widespread distribution. In the southern part of their range they are sedentary; in the North - roughly inside the Arctic circle - they are summer breeding migrants. Race "icelandica", Icelandic Redpoll, is found only on Iceland, while race "rostrata" exists on Greenland and Baffin Island. There is also an introduced population in New Zealand.

In Europe only Common Redpolls of the nominate race "flammea" are found. They are sedentary in large parts of the British Isles, Denmark, the western coastal areas of Sweden and much of central and northern Scandinavia, except the northern-most mountainous regions. This zone of permanent residency extends eastward from southern Finland into European Russia. In addition, there are also sedentary Common Redpolls in the Alps and also some of the central European low mountain ranges and, surprisingly, also in the Benelux countries down to sea level. In the northern-most mountainous parts of Scandinavia and in north-western European Russia, except for the farthest coastal strip, they are breeding migrants. The winter quarters of the migratory population extend from central France in the West and the Po valley in the South to basically anywhere to the North of a line connecting the Alps, the Danube Delta, the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountain range.

During the breeding season Common Redpolls have a preference for beech forest, but also coniferous forest (in particular young conifers, often larch-dominated areas) and deciduous copses, often with shrubs. Outside the breeding season Common Redpolls are very mobile and flexible in their choice of habitat.

Race "flammea"