Description:

Medium-sized, stocky, large-headed and blunt-billed, long-winged pale finch with notched tail. Shows pronounced whitish or buffish panels on wing. Breeding male has pinkish-red on head and breast, pink edges to greater coverts and primaries. Non-breeding male and female have less pink in plumage.

Distribution:

Widespread and commoun resident in all the regions of Gilgit-Baltistan. Inhabits arid or semi-arid mountain areas, with crags, ravines and rocky slopes with low vegetation and scattered low bushes. Summers up to 3800m descending to 1500m in winter.

Behavior:

Forages on ground, around or beneath low vegetation, usually hopping in horizontal position; picks seeds from bent-over seed heads and extracts seeds from cattle dung. Tame and often confiding. Feeds on mostly small seeds, also buds and shoots, including those of saltwort, wormwood, grasses and sedges.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Mongolian Finch in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Mongolian Finch

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.