Whooper Swan	White-tailed Sea-Eagle	Stellar's Sea-Eagle	Hazel Grouse
Japanese Crane	Far Eastern Curlew	Latham's Snipe	Ross's Gull
Blakiston's Fish-Owl	Ural Owl	Black Woodpecker	Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Eurasian Skylark	Long-tailed Tit	Snow Bunting	Common Redpoll
Tree Sparrow	Eurasian Jay	Northern Raven	Buller's Shearwater*
Swan Goose*	Ashy Minivet*	To Checklist	To Bird Guide Top

Common Redpoll   Carduelis flammea   Beni-hiwa

The Common Redpoll comes to Hokkaido as a winter visitor, and numbers vary considerably from year to year. In good years, flocks of these birds can be seen in various places. Flocks vary in size from a few birds to as many as several hundred.

They like to eat the seeds of weeds such as Yomogi (artemisia) and Matsuyoi-gusa (evening primrose or sundrops). Since Common Redpolls are also seen at the sides of roads, they are easily mistaken for sparrows. However, the Redpolls are a bit smaller and a portion of their forehead is red. The males also have some red on their breast and belly.

	Female. (Shari, 8 February 2003)
	Male. The breast is red. Males and females are the same size. (Shari, 11 April 2003)
	Flock. (Shari fishing port, 9 January 2002)
	Flock in flight. (Shari fishing port, 9 January 2002)