Pink-rumped Rosefinch Carpodacus waltoni Scientific name definitions

12·5 cm. Medium-sized, slender rosefinch with pointed bill and long, notched tail. Male has forehead to chin deep crimson, usually darker and browner on lores, eyestripe dark reddish-brown, supercilium and ear-coverts pink with some silvery-white tips; upper forehead to crown streaked broadly dark brown or blackish and deep pink; nape and upperparts pale grey-brown, tinged bright or deep pink and streaked broadly blackish, rump and uppertail-coverts unstreaked bright pink, longest coverts tipped brown; tail dark brown; upperwing dark brown, median coverts fringed pinkish, greater coverts edged and tipped pale pink, flight-feathers edged paler brown to buff-brown, tinged pink on tertials; cheek and ear-coverts to breast deep pink or pinkish-crimson, slightly paler pink on rear ear-coverts and side of neck and breast , also silvery-white or pink tips on lower ear-coverts, and sometimes blackish feather bases visible on centre of breast; belly to undertail-coverts white or pale pinkish; iris dark brown or black; bill dark brown to dark horn-brown; legs pale brown. Differs from very similar C. pulcherrimus in having deeper pink plumage tones and more extensive pink on rump and uppertail-coverts. Female lacks pink in plumage; has forehead to crown and upperparts pale buff-brown or light tawny, streaked heavily blackish-brown, less heavily streaked on rump; face pale buff or greyish, finely streaked darker, short pale or light buff supercilium from above or behind eye and ending abruptly over ear-coverts; tail as on male; upperwing-coverts tipped pale buff (greater coverts also edged pale buff), flight-feathers and tertials finely edged buff; chin and throat pale buff, rest of underparts buffish-brown, heavily streaked dark brown on breast and flanks, paler or whiter and more thinly streaked on belly and lower flanks; bare parts much as for male. Juvenile is like female, but with warmer buff on head, upperparts and edges of wing-coverts, also edges of tertials broadly pale buff, face and side of neck buff-brown, underparts streaked buffish-brown.

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C & S China (E Tibet, SE Qinghai, and W Sichuan); winters also NW Yunnan (Likiang Mts).

Primarily an altitudinal migrant, making post-breeding descent to lower levels within breeding range; some move S to Likiang Mts, in NW Yunnan. Vagrancy record in NW Thailand in Oct 1968 is now considered erroneous (3 Round, P.D., Leader, P.J. and Waengsothon, S. (2010). Removal of Pink-rumped Rosefinch Carpodacus eos from the Thai avifaunal list. Forktail. 26: 145–147. Close ).

No details of diet; presumably small seeds. Forages on ground, usually around edges of trees or bushes. In pairs and small groups; in non-breeding season occurs in larger numbers, and often in mixed-species flocks with C. pulcherrimus.

Song undescribed. Calls a sharp or assertive "pink" or "tink" and an emberizid-like "tsip" or "tsick"; occasionally also a thin, rattling "tvitt-itt-itt" and a harsh double note, "pip-rit".