Afghan Snowfinch
| Afghan Snowfinch | |
|---|---|
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| Illustration of a male (left) and a female (right) | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Suborder: | Passeri |
| Infraorder: | Passerida |
| Superfamily: | Passeroidea |
| Family: | Passeridae |
| Genus: | Montifringilla |
| Species: | M. theresae |
| Binomial name | |
| Montifringilla theresae (Meinertzhagen, 1937) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Pyrgilauda theresae Meinertzhagen, 1937 |
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The Afghan Snowfinch (Montifringilla theresae), also known as Theresa's Snowfinch, is a bird of the sparrow family and is an Afghan endemic found only in the Hindu Kush. The species was named by Richard Meinertzhagen after his cousin and companion, Theresa Clay, who was an expert on bird lice.
It is 13.5–15 cm long. The male is grey-brown with some white in the wings and a black face mask and two pronged patch on the throat. The female is a buff-tinged brown, with a weaker, greyer face mask and less white in the wings. There are short dark streaks on the mantle and a white subterminal band on the tail feathers other than the central pair. There is white on the upperwing coverts, secondaries and the inner primaries. The male has a brick red iris. It forms large flocks in winter, sometimes mixed with White-winged Snowfinch, Rock Sparrow and larks. The flight is heavy and straight. They feed on insects and small seeds.[1]
They breed in the hollows made by ground squirrels or marmots, lining the nest with hair and feathers. The alarm call is a sharp tsi and they make soft quaak calls in flight and a stridulating zig-zig.[1]
[edit] References
- Clement, Harris and Davis, Finches and Sparrows ISBN 0-7136-8017-2
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