Rosy-Finch Complex

North American Rosy-Finches (Leucosticte spp.) are alpine specialists distributed across the mountaintops of the western United States and Canada. With nests at upwards of 13,500 feet, Rosy-Finches are among the highest elevation nesting birds in North America. As a result of this extreme distribution, they may be particularly sensitive to changes in global climate. Additionally, the difficulty in accessing breeding territories have made them a challenging group to study, and much is still unknown about these birds.

Rosy-Finches are short distance migrants that often move down in both elevation and latitude during the winter months. While previous research has demonstrated strong overwinter site fidelity, little is known about the connectivity between the wintering and breeding grounds. In collaboration with scientists at the University of California Santa Cruz, the University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we have collected data through color banding, feather sampling and blood sampling. With these data, we are building a better understanding of the patterns in movement across seasons and populations.

One of the first steps in understanding the Rosy-Finch complex is understanding the genetic variation within the group as a whole. North American Rosy-Finches are typically defined as three separate species: the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte tephrocotis), the Brown-capped Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte australis), and the Black Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte atrata). Although two previous studies have examined molecular data from Rosy-Finches, no distinct genetic differences have been found thus far across these three species. In a project led by Dr. Scott Taylor and graduate student Erik Funk at the University of Colorado Boulder, whole genome sequences were analyzed from across all three North American species and subspecies, in addition to a fourth out group species from Asia, the Asian Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte arctoa). You can read about that 2020 published study here. The data from this study lends further insight into the total variation present in the Rosy-Finch complex, helping us to better understand species boundaries, and inform future studies of their evolution and population connectivity.