The crimson-winged finch was
formally described in 1838 by the English ornithologist
John Gould based on a specimen collected at
Erzurum in eastern Turkey. He placed the species with the finches in the
genus Fringilla and coined the
binomial name Fringilla sanguinea. The specific epithet is
Latin meaning "bloody", from
sanguis,
sanguinis meaning "blood". The crimson-winged finch is now the only species placed in the
genus Rhodopechys that was introduced in 1851 by the German ornithologist
Jean Cabanis with the crimson-winged finch as the
type species. The genus name is from
Ancient Greek ῥοδοπηχυς/
rhodopēkhus, ῥοδοπηχυος/
rhodopēkhuos meaning "rosy-armed", from ῥοδον/
rhodon meaning "rose" and πηχυς/
pēkhus, πηχεως/
pēkheōs meaning "forear". Two
subspecies are recognised:
Differences between African and Asian subspecies There are several differences between Asian and African subspecies: • African birds have a rosy-tinged grey-white central chin and throat, with a narrow brown breast-band below it, whereas this whole area is solidly tawny-brown on Asian birds. • The brown breast and flank markings on Asian birds are more extensive than on African birds. • African birds have less black on the crown than Asian birds (on males it often tends to be restricted to the forecrown). Male birds show the following additional differences: • Asian birds have extensive pink in their uppertail-coverts, which is lacking in African birds (although the latter can show a vinous wash here in fresh plumage). • Asian birds often have black spotting on their breast-sides; African birds always lack this. • Asian birds can have distinct black markings on their mantle, but these are much less distinct on African birds. • Asian birds have on average more distinct black markings on their ear-coverts than African birds. • Asian birds typically have more extensive red in their face, often in the fore-supercilium (African birds can show red here but it is not the norm). == Ecology ==