Asian Rosy Finch

Asian Rosy Finch (Leucosticte arctoa) is a sturdy brownish finch with rosy pink in its wings, rump and underparts and a dark face in breeding plumage. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in high tundra and mountain grassland across central Asia and the East Palearctic, feeds on seeds and small invertebrates on the ground and winters in Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin and East Asia. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).