Long-tailed finch
The long-tailed finch ("Poephila acuticauda") is a common species of estrildid finch found in Australia; also known as the blackheart finch, shaft-tail finch, Heck's grassfinch, Heck's grass finch, and Heck's finch. It is a predominantly fawn-coloured bird with a pale grey head and prominent black bib and eyes. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,000,000–10,000,000 km. It inhabits dry savannah habitats in Australia and adapts readily to aviculture. The IUCN has classified the species as being of least concern.
Finch
Fossil remains of true finches are rare, and those that are known can mostly be assigned to extant genera at least. Like the other Passeroidea families, the true finches seem to be of roughly Middle Miocene origin, around 20 to 10 million years ago (Ma). An unidentifable finch fossil from the Messinian age, around 12 to 7.3 million years ago (Ma) during the Late Miocene subepoch, has been found at Polgárdi in Hungary.