Rosefinches

The Rosefinches were one of the highlights of our recent trip to northern Inner Mongolia.  Long-tailed Rosefinch (Uragus sibiricus, 长尾雀) is a scarce but regular visitor to Beijing in winter.  I have seen it three times in the capital – once at Yeyahu and twice at Lingshan.  Usually we only see the brown, streaky immatures or females, so it was very cool to see some stunning adult males in Wuerqihan.  On the journey from Hailar airport to Wuerqihan we counted more than 25 of these stunning finches.

And it wasn’t only Long-tailed that we saw in Wuerqihan.  There were also some of the sought after Pallas’s Rosefinches (Carpodacus roseus, 北朱雀).  Pallas’s Rosefinch is a difficult bird to see anywhere and we were fortunate to see several small flocks of these beautiful birds around Wuerqihan.

Our guide, Mr Zhang, regularly puts out seed to attract birds and, as well as these stunning rosefinches, the food attracted Northern Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula, 红腹灰雀), including some of the grey-bellied race, cineracea, Common and Arctic Redpolls (Carduelis flammea, 白腰朱顶雀, and Carduelis hornemanni, 极北朱顶雀), Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius, 松鸦) and even a Siberian Weasel.  That’s a quality line up for any bird table!