Birding, Species Spotlight

Species Spotlight: Siberian Long-tailed Rosefinch

April 25, 2025 by Kai Pflug 3 Comments

The Long-tailed Rosefinch was split relatively recently based on a taxonomic revision. Three of the previous subspecies are now the Siberian Long-tailed Rosefinch, and the other two are the Chinese Long-tailed Rosefinch.

Somewhat counterintuitively, the Long-tailed Rosefinch in the North of Inner Mongolia is the Siberian Long-tailed Rosefinch.

Apart from that, there is not too much interesting to say about the species – I guess it is too cold at least in its wintering grounds to do much research.

Unless you are interested in chewing lice – a Japanese paper reports on a new species of chewing lice on a Long-tailed Rosefinch: “The lice discovered on the bird confirmed as belonging to the family Philopteridae of the suborder Ischnocera, by the following features: the snout did not extend from the head, there were two claws on each leg, and the antennae, which were elongated, were filiform, had five sections, and reached the corner roots.”

But it is such a beautiful bird that it justifies its own post, lice or not.

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 21 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well.He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.