Leucosticte tephrocotis X LEUCOSTICTE atrata
Status: Accidental.
Documentation: Photographs: 9 Jan 2024 Toadstool Road, Sioux Co (Mlodinow, eBird Checklist – 9 Jan 2024).
Taxonomy: For some time, the three Nearctic forms (Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch L. tephrocotis, Black Rosy-Finch L. atrata, and Brown-capped Rosy-Finch L. australis) were treated as subspecies of Asian Rosy-Finch L. arctoa, but were separated as three species by AOU (1957). However, they were re-lumped from 1983 to 1993 by AOU (1983), a decision considered unjustified by AOU (1993) based on studies in the Bitterroot and Seven Devils Mountains by Johnson (1972) that found that the parent species differ significantly, indicating existence of reproductive isolating mechanisms and selection against hybrids and indicating separate species status for each. It was concluded (AOU 1993) that there is “limited hybridization … rather than free interbreeding among several forms, especially L. c. tephrocotis and L. atrata, which meet in the region from west-central Idaho to Central MT. Thus, we recommend reversion to the treatment presented in the 5th ed. [AOU 1957]”, the currently recognized situation (Gill et al 2022).
Hybrids between Gray-crowned and Black rosy-finches (MacDougall-Shackleton et al 2020) were described from the Bitterroot Mountains along the border between Idaho and Montana by Mewaldt (1950), the Seven Devils Mountains in Idaho by French (1959), the Little Belt Mountains in Montana by Hoffman (1960), the Cabinet Mountains in Montana by Johnson (1972), and recently in the Utah winter range by Kristin Purdy (see below).
Record: There is a single record, of two birds photographed in the same flock of Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches near Toadstool Park, Sioux Co 9 Jan 2024 by Steven Mlodinow (cited above). The birds were confirmed as hybrids by Kristin Purdy, who has banded and photographed this hybrid at winter feeders in Weber Co, Utah (eBird Checklist – 11 Jan 2023 – Powder Ridge Village & Feeder; eBird Checklist – 18 Jan 2023; eBird Checklist – 23 Feb 2023). The identification as hybrids is based on back and underparts color, which is intermediate between the parent species (neither sooty black nor cinnamon-brown). These Utah records are the only ones accepted in eBird other than the Nebraska records noted here.
Although “gray-cheeked (Hepburn’s)” Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches are not uncommon in wintering flocks of rosy-finches in Nebraska, indicating significant contributions of rosy-finches breeding mostly west of Alberta and northwestern Montana, the flock containing the two Nebraska hybrids had only one Hepburn’s rosy-finch, suggesting easterly provenance, likely the Bitterroot or Seven Devils Mountains.
Images
Abbreviations:
AOU: American Ornithologists’ Union
Literature Cited:
American Ornithologists’ Union. 1957. Check-list of North American birds, 5th ed. American Ornithologists’ Union, Baltimore, Maryland.
American Ornithologists’ Union. 1983. Check-list of North American Birds. Sixth edition. American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, DC, USA. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34735248.
American Ornithologists’ Union. 1993. Thirty-ninth supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 110: 675-682.
French, N.R. 1959. Distribution and migration of the Black Rosy Finch. Condor 61: 18-29.
Gill, F., D. Donsker, and P. Rasmussen (Eds). 2022. IOC World Bird List (v 12.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.12.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
Hoffmann, R.S. 1960. Summer birds of the Little Belt Mountains, Montana. Occasional Papers Montana State University (Missoula) 1.
Johnson, R.E. 1972. The biosystematics of the avian genus Leucosticte. Phd Thesis, Univ. of California, Berkeley.
MacDougall-Shackleton, S.A., R.E. Johnson, and T.P. Hahn. 2020. Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte tephrocotis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gcrfin.01.
Mewaldt, L.R. 1950. Bird records from western Montana. Condor 52: 238-239.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2024. Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch x Black Rosy-Finch (hybrid) (Leucosticte tephrocotis x Leucosticte atrata). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Updated 21 Feb 2024