Monti fringilla nivalis (Linneo 1766)

[Enghish]

Monti fringilla nivalis (Linneo 1766)

We conclude the examination of our ploceids with the Alpine Chaffinch, the largest bird
of the subfamily (from 17.5 to 19.5 cm.) structurally different from the other Passeri dai
which is distinguished by its shape and colour, based on various shades of gray and brown,
on black and white (the helmsmen are unmistakable
and the flight feathers that appear conspicuously in flight
colored in black and white). Blackish beak, which in the bad season becomes
orange yellow with black tip. In winter, the gular spot is almost completely black
hidden by the light margining of the feathers, even if Rota (1967) is not the same
opinion, not believing that the black feathers are edged with white to the point of hiding
the color of the stain. The sexes are nearly alike and the females have a
general coloration more faded and with less accentuated white. Polytypic species, they are
various subspecies are known (Vaurie, 1959) none of which, however, is of interest to Italy.
I am not aware of any color anomalies in the plumage.
Present on the peninsula as very localized and nesting in suitable places, it is encountered
on the Alps and the central Apennines and perhaps in some localities of the northern Apennines.
Not present in the islands despite the affirmation of Rota (1967) that in the islands indeed
he says it «... almost missing...» that is, therefore present even if with a small or very small number
of specimens.
In the studies on the local avifauna I find no trace of nesting in the
islands, and this statement must therefore in any case be interpreted as referring to the presence
(very rare if never ascertained) of some subject during winter travel, for
at least in Sicily (Sorci, Massa and Cangialosi in R.I.O. n. 1-1973), in Malta (De Luca,
« A Revised Check list of the Birds of the Maltese Islands», 1969) and in Pantelleria (Moltoni
1973) is not reported, nor do I find any trace of it in the works of Moltoni and others for
what refers to Sardinia. The only datum, even if a little ephemeral, reported by Moltoni e
by Di Carlo in their monograph on the birds of the Island of Elba (in R.I.O. n. 3A-1970) is a
quotation in turn taken from Damiani (1912 ) which lists the Alpine Chaffinch among the species
whose presence is doubtful, for an individual killed «many decades ago in the plain
near Portoferraio», and I quote the quote verbatim.
In the peninsula it is stationary and nests at high altitudes, from 1800 to over 3000 m.
(maximum height of the cave m. 3476, from Schauser and Caspari, 1975) on the
Alps, at even lower altitudes (never below 1500 m.) in the Apennines. According to Cova (1969 ) it would be, in the alpine tundra zone, the ecological substitute of the snow bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis (Linnaeus 1758), and would represent an evident case of parallel evolution with this
species. From the end of April to July (generally two broods per year) it is built alone
female a voluminous nest with dry grasses, mosses, straws, lined inside with grasses
thinner, of horsehair and feathers, preferentially placed in holes among the rocks, in the depths of the
crevices, on the ground in abandoned marmot burrows, in the cracks of some old wall,
on the roofs of huts or refuges (Di Carlo, 1975) where 4 to 6 eggs are laid, sometimes
even 7, incubated only by the female for a period of time ranging from 13 to 18 days in
function of climatic conditions. Young people, in whose nutrition they both collaborate
the parents leave the nest completely independent towards the twentieth day, similar to the
female but with dark gray rather than black gular spot.
Nesting often occurs in small colonies.
After hatching they gather in flocks of
even more than a hundred specimens and they give themselves to partial wanderings in search of the food, represented
from small insects and spiders and from seeds of alpine plants during the reproductive period, from
grains of all kinds in the winter months. In cold winters they go down for trophic reasons
in the valleys below 1000 m. only if forced by cold and exceptional snowfall that
they can prevent them from finding food at more congenial quotas and it is not rare to see them in the moles
near human settlements.
Similarly to what has been observed for the Passer domesticus, the Alpine Chaffinch is a species
parasitized in Italy by the Cuckoo, while the same phenomenon is not reported for Switzerland, the
Belgium and France.
I am not aware of any breeding in captivity which in any case I do not think they would be
possible at low altitudes.
There are absolutely no data (neither certain nor doubtful) on the hybridization in nature of the Chaffinch
alpine, even if Rota (1967) says that «The mating of the Alpine Chaffinch
with other species it is due to chance..." and therefore indirectly admits (does not hypothesize)
hybridization. And a few lines later (and this time as a hypothesis) he says that «Possible
couplings with other birds are: with the Alpine accentor and with the snow bunting, similar in habits
and captive feeding. Certainly excluding the occurred natural hybridization
(insulating barriers, see in general Mayr, 1970, there are plenty of them for what refers
to the Sordone, Prunella collaris Scopoli 1769, and for the snow bunting it is enough to think
that if the species does not reproduce in our Alps there are no credible reasons to believe
that it should hybridize with another bird even if phylogenetically not far away) not
I am absolutely aware of the hybridization that took place in captivity (and the
reference to the work of Maranini, cit. ) even if Codazzi in several parts (pages 30, 68, 85 and 107)
of his «Treatise on hybridology» mentions the hybrid of «Canary - Chaffinch» among the hybrids
more easily achievable (page 30) and even goes so far as to describe it to us (page 107), while
on p. 85 speaks to us as a matter of course of the Alpine Chaffinch-Bullfinch crossing and on page.
68 hypothesizes (your goodness) the possibility of hybridising ours with the Goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis
(Linnaeus 1758), the Bullfinch, or big beak, of the pine forests, Pinicola enucleator (Linnaeus
1758) and the Hawfinch, Coccothroustes coccothraustes ( Linnaeus 1758), with all due respect, in
this imaginative range of his, of the whole question of serological affinities, of differences of
pH, of different food needs, of barometric issues that make sure that if under one
certain quota it is not possible for a given bird to reproduce, the same happens for a
other above a certain altitude. Apart from the fact that in the literature absolutely
no mention is made of the hybridizations in question, which if they had occurred they would have been
widely documented by both the scientific and amateur press.