Neochmia phaeton

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Aves
Subclassis: Carinatae
Infraclassis: Neornithes
Parvclassis: Neognathae
Ordo: Passeriformes
Subordo: Passeri
Parvordo: Passerida
Superfamilia: Passeroidea
Familia: Estrildidae
Genus: Neochmia
Species: Neochmia phaeton
Subspecies: N. p. evangelinae - N. p. iredalei - N. p. phaeton

Name

Neochmia phaeton (Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841)

Vernacular names
Português: Phaeton

Reference

Annales Des Sciences Naturelles(2) 16 p.314

The Crimson Finch, Neochmia phaeton, is a common species of estrildid finch found in Australia, West Papua, Indonesia & Papua New Guinea. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 100,000- 1,000,000 km².

It is commonly found in moist savanna, and subtropical/ tropical (lowland) moist shrubland. The status of the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

The Crimson finch (also known as the Blood Finch) has two distinct races, the Black-bellied and the White-bellied. The Black-bellied is the more common in captivity and therefore is reflected in its pricing.

The Blood Finch is known by this name due to the predominantly blood red colouration of the plumage. This bird is often erroneously accused of being a "killer" in captivity. It is normally no more aggressive than any other Australian finch; only males kept as single birds for a long period of time eventually become aggressive. This finch comes from the northern part of Australia, mainly in the Northern Territory.

An Australian Government link about the distribution and information regarding this Australian finch can be found on the following link: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=64443

References

BirdLife Species Factsheet