Gibraltar ringing - African Chaffinch

I arrived in Gibraltar on the 15th January 2024 to start my second spring season as Ringer-in-charge at the Jews' Gate Field Centre. During this period we trapped and ringed a male and a female African Chaffinch.

Speciation 
A paper published by Maria Recuerda in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution in November 2021 proposed that the Common Chaffinch be split into five separate species. In February of 2023 the International Ornithological Congress decided to accept these recommendations and in their Species Update 13.2 announced the addition of four new species below;

• Fringilla coelebs found in continental Eurasia;

• Fringilla spodiogenys / africana found in North Africa;

• Fringilla moreletti found in the Azores;

• Fringilla maderensis found in Madeira;

• Fringilla canariensis found in the Canary Islands

This blog entry will talk about the African Chaffinch Fringilla spodiogenys and in particular the subspecies africana. that occurs in Algeria, Morocco and Northern Tunisia.

History
The African Chaffinch (albeit a sub-species at the time) has occurred previously on seven occasions on Gibraltar. The first was on 7th March 1989 when a group of four males were in company with Common Chaffinches and a Brambling on Windmill Hill Flats. A Single bird was still present the next day and another on the 13th of April. The first ringed bird occurred on the 28th March 1996 and the second on the 9th April 2004, both a Jews' Gate Field Centre. Another male was photographed by local birder, Jonathan Perera in the Poca Roca area of the Upper Nature Reserve on the 30th March 2018. The final bird to be ringed before this year was another male on the 7th March 2019

Spring 2024

I was aware of the possibility of this species occurring and in 2023 had printed out a paper that had originally appeared in Dutch Birding No.37, back in 2015, entitled "Identification of African Chaffinch". This paper addressed all of the known taxonomic differences and in particular the unique tail pattern of  spodiogenys in both male and female birds

The Male

On the 22nd March 2024, Gibraltar woke up to a "Calima", a Saharan dust storm that brought fine particles of orange sand over Gibraltar and Southern Iberia. At about 9:30 that morning, one of visiting ringers, Mark Winsloe, brought in a bird and stated "This bird was in net 5 and I'm not really sure what it is !"

I took the bird and immediately knew it was a male African Chaffinch.   

The blue on the head extends throughout the cheek rather than just on the crown and the nape of the Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs. The black forehead is much broader in Africana and extends across the lores to meet the front of the eye. It also has a light olive-green mantle rather than the reddish brown of CC. The rusty red chest of CC is replaced by a subtle pink hue. Finally, the tail pattern is very distinctive with T4 to T6 showing extensively more white than in CC.

  

The male African Chaffinch wing showing dark centres to the primaries. 

The secondaries have a pale grey edging and a view of the greenish mantle.

Wing of a male Common Chaffinch. A lighter base colour to the primaries 

with yellow edging to the secondaries and the rusty-brown of the mantle

The left-hand photo is of male African Chaffinch showing the white areas throughout T4 to T6. 

On the right, male Common Chaffinch with less white on T5 and T6 and the absence of white on T4.

Female
On the 6th April we woke up to a "Calima" once again. The morning was relatively slow until one of the visiting ringers brought in a "female chaffinch". After studying the Dutch Birding paper I was aware of the female features and in particular the tail pattern, so this was the first feature I looked for. Sure enough T4 had a large white patch. In general, the bird seemed larger, particularly the bill which was broader and longer. The mantle was again olive-green in colour, and we all noticed the distinctive blue-grey shoulder.

Common Chaffinch on the left with our bird on the right. The female African Chaffinch 

shows a larger, wider bill. It also shows more of a white eye ring similar to the male.

Compare the colour of the mantle to the Common Chaffinch. 

The female shows a similar olive-green back colour to the male.

Another feature that stood out for us and that was confirmed by the Dutch Birding paper was the amount of blue-grey on the shoulder of the female, never present on CC.

The appearance of this species was discussed by local ornithologist Ernest Garcia in his recent paper on African birds and their potential for colonisation of Europe. Indeed on the morning of the discovery of the male he had contacted the Gibraltar bird recorder, Charlie Perez, asking that Jews' Gate ringer to keep an eye out for the species. An excellent piece of foresight. 

It will be interesting to see what 2025 and beyond bring for this species. Local birders are now much more aware and visiting ringers will be supplied with details and images of the plumage differences. Let's hope for more occurrence's in the future.

Mark Cutts

References:

Recuerda, M.*, J. Vizueta*, C. Cuevas-Caballé, G. Blanco, J. Rozas, B. Milá. 2021.          Chromosome-level genome assembly of the common chaffinch (Aves: Fringilla 
coelebs):  a valuable resource for evolutionary biology. Genome Biology and Evolution,
13(4)

Corso A. Vigano M. Stamini L. 2015. Identification of African Chaffinch. Dutch Birding 37 :
392 - 402

GONHS - African Chaffinch recorded again in Gibraltar (African Chaffinch recorded again in Gibraltar. - Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society (gonhs.org))

IOC World Bird List - species update 13.2 Species Updates  Updates – IOC World Bird List (worldbirdnames.org)

Garcia E. 2024. African birds in Iberia : Recent colonists, potential colonists and vagrants, Ardeola 7(2)