White-winged snowfinch
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The white-winged snowfinch (Montifringilla nivalis), or snowfinch, is a small passerine bird. Despite its name, it is a sparrow rather than a true finch.
Taxonomy
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the white-winged snowfinch in his Ornithologie based on a specimen but without specifying where it had been collected. He used the French name {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and the Latin Fringilla nivalis.<ref name=brisson>Template:Cite book The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.</ref> Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.<ref name=allen>Template:Cite journal</ref> When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.<ref name=allen/> One of these was the white-winged snowfinch. Linnaeus included a brief description, used the binomial name Fringilla nivalis and cited Brisson's work. Linnaeus listed the type location as "America".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The type location was subsequently designated as Switzerland.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The specific name nivalis is Latin for 'snowy' or 'snow-white'.<ref name=hbwkey>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This species is now placed in the genus Montifringilla that was introduced by the German ornithologist Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1828.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Seven subspecies are recognised:<ref name=ioc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- M. n. nivalis (Linnaeus, 1766) – south Europe
- M. n. leucura Bonaparte, 1855 – south and east Turkey
- M. n. alpicola (Pallas, 1811) – the Caucasus and north Iran to Afghanistan
- M. n. gaddi Zarudny & Loudon, 1904 – southwest Iran
- M. n. tianshanica Keve-Kleiner, 1943 – east Kazakhstan and north Tajikistan
- M. n. groumgrzimaili Zarudny & Loudon, 1904 – northwest China to central Mongolia
- M. n. kwenlunensis Bianchi, 1908 – west central China and north Tibet
Description
The white-winged snowfinch is a large stocky snowfinch at Template:Convert in length. It has brown upperparts, white underparts and a grey head. There is a long narrow white wing panel. In summer, the bill is black, and there is a black bib. The bib is lost in winter and the bill becomes yellow. Sexes are similar.
In flight, it shows black wings with huge white wing panels, and a white edged black tail. This bird has a chattering song with many trills, and variety of rolling or creaky calls.
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Distribution and habitat
It is a resident breeding species on bare mountains, typically above Template:Convert, across southern Europe (Pyrenees, Alps, Corsica, Balkans) and through central Asia to western China. It nests in crevices or rodent burrows, laying 3–4 eggs.
Behaviour
The white-winged snowfinch's food is mainly seeds with some insects. It is fearless, and will forage around ski resorts. It is hardy, and rarely descends below Template:Convert even in hard winter weather.