The grey-crowned goldfinch (Carduelis caniceps), also known as the eastern goldfinch, Himalayan goldfinch or the grey-capped goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the family Fringillidae that is distributed throughout Central Asia and the Himalayas.
The genus name Carduelis comes from Linnaeus's specific epithet for the European Goldfinch Fringilla carduelis. Carduelis is the Latin name for the goldfinch.
The epithet caniceps is derived from the Latin canus (grey) and caput (head).
The grey-crowned goldfinch separated from the European goldfinch about 1.5 million years ago, in the Quaternary period.
Although first described by Vigors as a distinct species, the grey-crowned goldfinch was until recently widely treated as a subspecies group in the European goldfinch, primarily because it hybridised with it in southwestern Siberia and northern Iran. In 2016, BirdLife International restored its species status, and in 2024, the IOC World Bird List followed suit, accepting it as a separate species because of its very distinct plumage, lacking the black crown and vertical line behind the ear coverts of its relative.
Four subspecies are currently accepted:
The grey-crowned goldfinch is long with a wingspan of . They weigh about .
The male has a brighter and more extensive red on the face and brighter yellow on the wing than the female, which appears to be the only notable difference between the sexes. Both sexes have a pinkish bill.
The juvenile lacks the red in the face, has faint streaking on breast and has buffish tips to coverts and tertial markings. The juvenile has duller and darker legs compared to the adult's pink to dull brown legs.
The song of the grey-crowned goldfinch is a rather chaffinch-like combination, with a long mix of pleasant bubbling and twittering, though it lacks the "tinkling" notes of the European goldfinch. Its calls include twittering "deedelit" and "chirik", which do have a similar tinkling sound.
The grey-crowned goldfinch breeds in southern and eastern Iran east through Afghanistan to the western Himalaya in northern and western Pakistan, northwestern India, and western Nepal, and northeast through Central Asia to the far west of Xinjiang in China. In the nonbreeding season it is found to lower levels in the Himalaya and Central Asia; in the Himalaya, it is a altitudinal migrant, breeding at 2,400âÂÂ4,200 m altitude (rarely down to 1,500 m), and descending in winter to 1,900âÂÂ2,400 m (rarely down to 75 m) altitude; similar altitudinal migration also occurs in Kazakhstan.
It occupies open and sparse deciduous woodland, mixed deciduous and conifer woods, forest edges at an altitude of 2100-3600 m, orchards and often parks and gardens. It usually lives at altitudes higher than the European goldfinch.
The species has been recorded as a vagrant in Beijing, China. A vagrant, possibly C.carduelis subulata, was recorded in Japan.
Escaped or released captive birds have been reported in North America, but much more rarely than European goldfinch, with fewer than 1% of the number of that species.
They gather in flocks of four to several dozen birds and sometimes with other finches. They usually forage on the ground. They form flocks during autumn and winter to forage for food.
The diet consists mainly of seeds of various flowers, such as thistles, sunflowers, zinnia, chinar and dandelions. They are also known to eat arthropods.
Their breeding season occurs from April to August. They nest in groups with up to five nests in one tree.
The birds have their first brood in May usually in pine trees between 1700 and 2100 meters. After this first brood, they travel higher from 3000-3300 meters in July and they nest in pines, willows, fruit trees in orchards and birches.
Nests, which are constructed by the female (although the male might assist in collection of material) are neatly constructed with mosses and grasses in the shape of a cup. Nests are located as high as 18m or higher. It lays 4 to 5 bluish-white eggs speckled with red and brown. The eggs, which are similar to those of European goldfinch, are about . Cooperative breeding is not known in this species.
The eggs are incubated by the female for 9-12 days; the chicks stay in the nest for 13-18 days after hatching, and are fed by the parents for up to 10 days after leaving the nest.
The grey-crowned goldfinch has been known to hybridize with C.carduelis frigoris (with C.caniceps subulata in Siberia) and with C.carduelis brevirostris (with C.caniceps paropanisi, in Iran).