Twite



The twite (Linaria flavirostris) is a small brown passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is a partially migratory species that is found in northern Europe and across the Palearctic to China. It mainly feeds on small seeds but occasionally also feeds on insects.

Taxonomy
In 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the twite in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Fringilla flavirostris. The twite and the closely related linnets were at one time placed in the genus Carduelis but were moved to the resurrected genus Linaria based on a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences that was published in 2012. The genus had originally been introduced in 1802 by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein. The genus name linaria is the Latin for a linen-weaver, from linum, "flax". The specific epithet flavirostris means "yellow-billed".

Nine subspecies are recognised:
 * L. f. pipilans (Latham, 1787) – north Ireland and north Britain (includes bensonorum)
 * L. f. flavirostris (Linnaeus, 1758) – north Scandinavia and northwest Russia
 * L. f. brevirostris (Bonaparte, 1855) – Turkey, the Caucasus and north Iran
 * L. f. kirghizorum (Sushkin, 1925) – north, central Kazakhstan
 * L. f. korejevi (Zarudny & Härms, 1914) – northeast Kazakhstan to northwest China
 * L. f. altaica (Sushkin, 1925) – southwest Siberia and north, west Mongolia
 * L. f. montanella (Hume, 1873) – Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, north Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan to northwest China (includes pamirensis)
 * L. f. miniakensis (Jacobi, A, 1923) – east Tibet and west China
 * L. f. rufostrigata (Walton, 1905) – west, south Tibet, north India and north Nepal

Description
The twite is similar in size and shape to a linnet, at 13 to 13.5 cm long. It lacks the red head patch and breast shown by the linnet and the redpolls. It is brown streaked with black above, and a pink rump. The underparts are buff to whitish, streaked with brown. The conical bill is yellow in winter and grey in summer. The call is a distinctive twit, from which its name derives, and the song contains fast trills and twitters. Twites can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with other finches on coasts and salt marshes. They feed mainly on seeds.

Distribution and habitat
The twite breeds in northern Europe and across the Palearctic to Siberia and China. Treeless moorland is favoured for breeding. It is partially resident and in winter many birds migrate further south, or move to the coasts. It has declined sharply in parts of its range, notably in Ireland.

Breeding
The female builds a nest either on the ground or low down in a bush, laying 3–6 eggs. The eggs are light or dark blue in colour with variable dark purplish-brown specs or blotches which are mainly concentrated around the broad end. They are laid daily and measure 17.4 x. They are incubated by the female for 12–13 days. The young are fed and cared for by both parents and fledge when aged 11 to 12 days. They continue to be fed for a further two weeks after leaving the nest.

In the UK, the twite is the subject of several research projects in the Pennines, the Scottish Highlands and on the North Wales and Lancashire coastlines. Records show that the birds to the east of the Pennine hills move to the southeast coast in winter and those to the west winter between Lancashire and the Hebrides. The Welsh population winters almost exclusively in Flintshire. Ringing data has revealed that twite breeding in different parts of Britain use different non‐breeding areas, and that non-breeding areas of British twite do not overlap with non-breeding areas of continental twite.