Acanthis flammea

A larger, frostier-looking cousin of the lesser redpoll, arriving from Scandinavia in some winters.

Size: 13.5 cm | Habitat: Farmland & Countryside Birds | Season: Winter visitor

Paler and larger than the resident lesser redpoll, the common (or 'mealy') redpoll is a scarce winter visitor from Scandinavia and Russia, sometimes mixing into flocks of its smaller relative on the east coast in search of birch and alder seed.

Identification notes

Larger and 'frostier' than lesser redpoll, with pale, unstreaked underparts · whitish wing bar · red forehead patch · numbers vary widely each winter

Behaviour

Common redpolls arrive on the east coast in autumn and winter in variable numbers depending on the seed crop further north, often joining flocks of lesser redpolls at birch and alder trees.

Did you know?

Despite its name, the common redpoll is far scarcer in Britain than the lesser redpoll — the 'common' in its name reflects its abundance across its wider Scandinavian and Russian range, not in the UK.

🎓 Educational Note

The common (or mealy) redpoll shares its Red List status with its smaller, darker relative the lesser redpoll, though for slightly different reasons: while the resident lesser redpoll has suffered the steep breeding decline that triggered the original Red-listing, the common redpoll's UK presence is overwhelmingly as a scarce winter visitor from Scandinavia and Russia, with only a handful of pairs ever recorded breeding here.

Recent taxonomic reviews have gone back and forth on whether common and lesser redpolls should be treated as one species or two — currently most British authorities separate them, but the closely related, tricky-to-distinguish pair are often assessed and discussed together, meaning the common redpoll inherits a Red designation that mostly reflects trends in its rarer domestic cousin rather than its own fluctuating winter numbers.

🔴 Conservation status: Red (UK Birds of Conservation Concern 5)

Red-listed alongside the closely related lesser redpoll; as a scarce winter visitor its UK status is assessed together with the wider redpoll complex.

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