Acanthis cabaret
A tiny, acrobatic finch with a red cap, often feeding upside-down on birch and alder catkins.
Size: 11.5 cm | Habitat: Garden Birds | Season: All year
Britain's smallest and darkest redpoll, the lesser redpoll is a streaky brown finch with a bright red forehead patch and a small black chin, often seen hanging acrobatically from birch and alder branches, or visiting garden feeders in winter flocks.
Small and streaky brown · red forehead patch · small black chin patch · pink flush on breast (male) · undulating flight with buzzy calls
Lesser redpolls feed acrobatically on birch and alder seeds, often hanging upside down like tits, and gather into loose flocks in winter that sometimes visit garden feeders for nyjer seed.
Lesser redpoll numbers have fallen by more than 80% since the 1970s, making it one of Britain's fastest-declining finches, likely linked to changes in young woodland habitat.
Lesser redpoll numbers fell so steeply in the late twentieth century — over 80% since the 1970s — that the species was moved onto the Red List in 2009, having been Amber-listed only a few years earlier. The decline has been linked to the loss and maturing of young, scrubby woodland, particularly conifer plantations in their early stages, which offer the seed-bearing birch and alder the birds depend on.
Taxonomically the redpolls are a notoriously tricky group: Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis cabaret) is treated as a separate species from the larger Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea) by British ornithologists, though the split remains debated, and the two can be difficult to distinguish where their ranges overlap in winter. Encouragingly, recent data show a shallow recovery since the mid-1990s, though numbers remain far below historic levels.
🔴 Conservation status: Red (UK Birds of Conservation Concern 5)
Red-listed after a population decline of more than 80% since the 1970s, linked to the loss of young, scrubby woodland habitat.