The Baikal bullfinch (''Pyrrhula pyrrhula cineracea''), also known as the grey bullfinch, grey-headed bullfinch or great bullfinch, is a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

family Fringillidae. It is found in eastern

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

,Birds.kz
/ref>

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

and adjacent areas of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and China. Although sometimes considered a full species (''Pyrrhula cineracea''), most authorities treat it a subspecies of the

Eurasian bullfinch The Eurasian bullfinch, common bullfinch or bullfinch (''Pyrrhula pyrrhula'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family, Fringillidae. In Anglophone Europe it is known simply as the bullfinch, as it is the original bird to bear the name bull ...

. It migrates altitudinally from its summer breeding range in the Altai Mountains to its winter range in the adjacent foothills and plains.

Description

The male differs from that of the nominate subspecies by having completely grey underparts.

Taxonomy

The subspecies was described in 2001 by Arnaiz-Villena et al. All birds belonging to the genus ''Pyrrhula'' have a common ancestor: the

pine grosbeak The pine grosbeak (''Pinicola enucleator'') is a large member of the true finch family, Fringillidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Pinicola''. It is found in coniferous woods across Alaska, the western mountains of the United States, Can ...

(''Pinicola enucleator'').

Distribution and habitat

In Kazakhstan the Baikal bullfinch is a rare resident and common winter visitor. It breeds in the western Altai Mountains, including the Belaya Uba valley, and the

Sayan Mountains The Sayan Mountains (russian: Саяны ''Sajany''; mn, Соёны нуруу, ''Soyonï nurû''; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰏𐰢𐰤, Kögmen) are a mountain range in southern Siberia, Russia ( Buryatia, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva Republic ...

(eastern Altai) of western Mongolia; in the southern Altai it breeds in the upper reaches of the Bukhtarma River, around

Lake Markakol Lake Markakol ( kz, Марқакөл, ''Marqaköl''; russian: озеро Маркаколь, ozero Markakol') is a lake and popular tourist destination in East Kazakhstan. The lake is fed with small rivers and streams. Its coasts are cut up by ...

, and in the Kara-Kaba valley (where it intergrades with the nominate subspecies). On post-breeding dispersal and in winter, it occurs mainly in the foothills and plains of eastern Kazakhstan, sometimes as far west as

Semipalatinsk Semey ( kk, Семей, Semei, سەمەي; cyrl, Семей ), until 2007 known as Semipalatinsk (russian: Семипала́тинск) and in 1917–1920 as Alash-kala ( kk, Алаш-қала, ''Alaş-qala''), is a city in eastern Kazakhst ...

, Kurgaldzhino Reserve and

Astana Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...

, Almaty, the Chu-Iliyskiye Mountains and at

Kyzylorda Kyzylorda ( kk, Қызылорда, translit=Qyzylorda, ), formerly known as Kzyl-Orda (russian: Кзыл-Орда), Ak-Mechet (Ак-Мечеть), Perovsk (Перовск), and Fort-Perovsky (Форт-Перовский), is a city in south-cen ...

in the Syr Darya valley. The Baikal bullfinch inhabits fir forests with some

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

trees, fir-

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

and spruce-

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

forest in river valleys and

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

shores at altitudes of 1,400–1,800 m. On dispersal, the Baikal bullfinches visit

deciduous forests In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

with a shrubby understorey,

riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered chann ...

s and thickets of tall weeds.

Behaviour

Breeding

The birds breed in the Altai from May, with scattered pairs nesting some distance from one another. A nest recorded in early May in a birch tree was built 5 m above the ground of thin twigs and dry grass lined with thin rootlets and hair. Fledglings and independent juvenile birds have been recorded from mid-July to early August. Dispersal from the breeding range begins in August and September, with birds appearing in southeastern Kazakhstan from the end of October to early November, and remaining there until mid-May.

References

* Gavrilov, E. I., & A. E. Gavrilov (2005). ''The Birds of Kazakhstan''. Almaty. {{Taxonbar, from=Q3849813 cineracea Birds of Central Asia Birds of Mongolia Birds described in 1872