Appearance:

Large, elongated, long-tailed finch with secretive behaviour. In all plumages: Black wings with white wing-bars and white edges to tertials. Tail black. Body speckled in grey, with orangy/yellowish, or deep red base colour. Flanks, belly and vent grey. Deep and short Bullfinch-like bill. Juveniles dark brown above with less contrasting wing-bars. Shows only faint yellow or brown on throat and chest. Note long tail and thrush-like appearance in flight. Not shy.

Sound:

Contact call a melodic, plaintive "cliu-wee", with both syllables falling in pitch. Analogoues to Siskin, but much more full-bodied and lower pitched (like a mix of Siskin and Bullfinch). Song a soft, flowing, melodic yodeling in clear, flute-like tones.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Richard Dunn,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license

Appearance:

Male with brown back, pinkish white underparts and a bluish grey head with a black eye mask. Female more dull with barred underparts. Juvenile like female, but upperparts also barred . Tail brown with white edges in all plumages. Females and juveniles easily confused with other southern/eastern or vagrant shrikes like; Brown Shrike, Isabelline Shrike, Woodchat Shrike and Turkestan Shrike. Differs from those in white sides of tail, barred rump, mantle and scapulars, scaly underparts and dark or yellowish base of bill (not pink).

Sound:

Call a hard "check check" (like striking two rocks together), and a variable nasal "twee" Song surprisingly varied with many expert imitations of small passerines, interwoven with bell-like ringing and dry chirping sounds. May be confusing and hard to identify if bird not seen. Song not very loud, but phrases can be very long.

Alarm call, song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC