Mongolian Finch

About the Mongolian Finch

The Mongolian finch (Bucanetes mongolicus), also known as the Mongolian trumpeter finch, is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. The Mongolian finch is a small, long-winged bird. It has a large head and short, thick greyish-yellow bill. In breeding plumage, males have a pink flush to their face and underparts, and there are extensive white and pink areas in the wings, a pattern that is also present but less marked in non-breeding plumage. Females have fainter, almost unnoticeable pink.

The Mongolian finch is fairly quiet outside of the breeding season. Calls consist of various rising nasal notes and chirrups, while songs are a jumbled series of these notes. This bird is a resident from eastern Turkey, across the Caucasus, east into Central Asia and on to western China and Mongolia and south into the Kashmir. Mountainous areas of stony desert or semi-arid scrub and rocky slopes are favoured for breeding. It is native to Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, India, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. It is a vagrant in Bahrain.

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