Species

Justification
Survey data have shown that this species has undergone moderately rapid declines and therefore it qualifies as Near Threatened.

Taxonomic source(s)
AOU. 1998. Check-list of North American birds. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
Sibley, C. G.; Monroe, B. L. 1990. Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. Yale University Press, New Haven, USA.
Stotz, D. F.; Fitzpatrick, J. W.; Parker, T. A.; Moskovits, D. K. 1996. Neotropical birds: ecology and conservation. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Distribution and population
Carpodacus cassinii is found throughout the conifer belts of North America's western interior mountains, from southern British Columbia and southern Alberta in Canada, south through the Rocky Mountains of the USA to wintering populations in northern Mexico (Clement et al. 1993, Hahn 1996). Migration is erratic, dependent on food supply in the breeding range (Clement et al. 1993, Hahn 1996). Population trends should therefore probably be viewed with some caution, due to apparent lack of site fidelity (Hahn 1996), but the species has declined by 2.3% annually from 1966 to 2002 (J. Wells and K. Rosenberg in litt. 2003).

Population justification
Rich et al. PIF North American Landbirds Conservation Plan (2004).

Trend justification
This species has undergone a small or statistically insignificant decrease over the last 40 years in North America (data from Breeding Bird Survey and/or Christmas Bird Count: Butcher and Niven 2007).

Ecology
Inhabits montane pine forests.

Threats
There is little information on potential threats to C. cassinii, but a preference for open forest habitat suggests that selective logging or small-scale clear-cutting will not be deleterious to this species (Hahn 1996).

Conservation actions underway
None are known.

Conservation actions proposed
Continue to monitor the population and its trends. Determine what the threats to the species are and develop appropriate conservation actions. Work with owners and managers of montane pine forests to ensure that logging practices are beneficial to the species.

References
Clement, P.; Harris, A.; Davis, J. 1993. Finches and sparrows: an identification guide. Christopher Helm, London.

Hahn, T. P. 1996. Cassin's Finch Carpodacus cassinii. In: Poole, A.; Gill, F. (ed.), The birds of North America No. 240, pp. 1-20. The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia and the American Ornithologists' Union, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Further web sources of information
Hear sounds for this species from xeno-canto, the community database of shared bird sounds from around the world.

View photos and videos, and hear sounds of this species from the Internet Bird Collection

Text account compilers
Bird, J., Harding, M., Sharpe, C J

Contributors
Rosenberg, K., Wells, J.

IUCN Red List evaluators
Butchart, S., Symes, A.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2013) Species factsheet: Carpodacus cassinii. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/05/2013. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2013) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/05/2013.

This information is based upon, and updates, the information published in BirdLife International (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, BirdLife International (2004) Threatened birds of the world 2004 CD-ROM and BirdLife International (2008) Threatened birds of the world 2008 CD-ROM. These sources provide the information for species accounts for the birds on the IUCN Red List.

To provide new information to update this factsheet or to correct any errors, please email BirdLife

To contribute to discussions on the evaluation of the IUCN Red List status of Globally Threatened Birds, please visit BirdLife's Globally Threatened Bird Forums.