- Fringilla montifringilla Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 179; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1888), 12, 178; Oates, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 233, fig. 65 (head); McGregor, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1904), 4, 24; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 103.
Calayan (McGregor). Europe, northern Asia, Kamchatka, northern China; in winter to British Islands, Japan, Liu Kiu and Bonin Islands.
Male in winter.—Head, neck, mantle, and sides of head, of neck, and of throat black with wide fringes of light buff or ochraceous-buff; feathers of neck and mantle with gray bases; lower back and rump white, black along the sides; tail-coverts black, tipped with buff; chin, middle of throat, fore breast, sides, and flanks orange-buff; flanks with a few black spots; lower breast and abdomen white; crissum light buff; feathers of thighs black with buff tips; wing-quills black; primaries and secondaries narrowly edged with pale yellow; outer webs of fourth to seventh primaries with a spot of white at tips of primary-coverts; secondaries with larger white spots nearer their bases; tertials broadly edged with orange-buff on their outer webs; scapulars and lesser coverts orange-buff; median coverts white, some of them washed with buff; greater coverts black with broad buff tips; rectrices black, edged with ashy gray or pale yellow; outermost pair with basal half of outer webs white; axillars canary-yellow; wing-lining and edges of the inner webs of quills white. Iris brown; bill yellow; its tip dusky; legs light brown, soles pale yellow; nails dusky. A male from Calayan Island measures: Length, 165; wing, 94; tail, 65; culmen from base, 13; tarsus, 20.
Female in winter.—Not greatly different from the male. A female from Japan measures: Wing, 85; tail, 58; culmen from base, 13; tarsus, 19.
Male in summer.—“The summer plumage of the male is gradually assumed by the shedding of the sandy-colored edges, and the bluish ashy of the hind neck and mantle remains as a spot behind the head, the feathers of these parts generally showing ashy gray bases throughout the summer plumage.
“Nestling.—Recalls the plumage of the adult female, but more tinged with olive, the nape-patch well developed, and the rump-patch tinged with sulphur-yellow; under surface of body washed with pale sulphur-yellow, tinged with orange on fore neck, chest, and sides of body.” (Sharpe.)
The brambling as a Philippine species is known only from three winter specimens collected in Calayan Island.
Genus PASSER Brisson, 1760.
Bill moderately stout, not greatly compressed; culmen straight and with a decided ridge for its basal half; rounded and gently curved for its distal half; wing moderate in length, covering less than half the tail, and its tip not reaching the base of toes. Colors black, dingy white, rusty brown, and liver-brown.