Mountain finch



The mountain finches are birds in the genus Leucosticte from the true finch family, Fringillidae. This genus also includes the rosy finches, named from their pinkish plumage. They are apparently closely related to the bullfinches (Marten & Johnson, 1986) and to the Pine Grosbeak (Arnaiz-Villena et al., 2001), diverging from them not quite a dozen million years ago, at the end of the Middle Miocene.

These birds are native to Asia and North America and are typically found in barren mountainous regions. Many species eat more insect material than other finches.

The full list of species is:
 * Plain Mountain-Finch, Leucosticte nemoricola
 * Brandt's Mountain-Finch, Leucosticte brandti
 * Asian Rosy-Finch, Leucosticte arctoa
 * Grey-crowned Rosy-Finch, Leucosticte tephrocotis
 * Black Rosy-Finch, Leucosticte atrata
 * Brown-capped Rosy-Finch, Leucosticte australis

Now in Carpodacus:
 * Sillem's Mountain-Finch, Carpodacus sillemi