White-winged Snowfinch

The white-winged snowfinch is a large, stocky snowfinch, 16.5–19 centimetres long, and despite the name it is a sparrow rather than a true finch. It has brown upperparts, white underparts, a grey head and a long narrow white wing panel. In summer the bill is black and there is a black bib; the bib is lost in winter and the bill becomes yellow. In flight it shows black wings with huge white wing panels and a black tail edged white. The song is a chattering series of trills, and the calls are rolling or creaky. (Wikipedia, general species account)

It is a resident breeder on bare mountains, typically above 1,500 metres, across southern Europe, including the Pyrenees, Alps, Corsica and Balkans, and through central Asia to western China. It nests in crevices or rodent burrows and lays three or four eggs. The food is mainly seeds with some insects. The bird is fearless, foraging around ski resorts, and hardy, rarely descending below 1,000 metres even in hard winter weather. (Wikipedia, general species account)