Eurasian Bullfinch

About the Eurasian Bullfinch

The Eurasian bullfinch or common bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) is a small passerine bird in the finch family, Fringillidae. In Anglophone Europe it is known simply as the bullfinch (English regional, Shropshire: plum bird), as it is the original bird to bear the name bullfinch.

The Eurasian bullfinch was formally described in 1758 by Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia pyrrhula. It is now placed in the genus Pyrrhula that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The Latin word pyrrhula comes from the Greek πυρρός (a flame-coloured bird, from πυρρός 'flame-coloured', from πυρ 'fire': Pyrrha), a 'worm eating bird' that is mentioned by Aristotle. The Latin name pyrrhula for the Eurasian bullfinch had been used in 1555 by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium.

Ten subspecies are recognised: P. p. pileata MacGillivray, W, 1837 – British Isles P. p. pyrrhula (Linnaeus, 1758) – north, south central and east Europe across to central Siberia P. p. europaea Vieillot, 1816 – Western Europe

P. p. iberiae Voous, 1951 – southwest France, northern... Wikipedia →