Ground Tit

The ground tit, also called the Tibetan ground tit, Hume's ground tit, Hume's groundpecker or Tibetan ground jay, is a bird of the Tibetan plateau north of the Himalaya, found in China, India, Nepal and Bhutan. It resembles a wheatear in habitus but lacks black feathers, and has a strong, slightly downcurved bill like a chough's in shape though not in colour. The soft, lax plumage is extremely cryptic, and the underside is a greyish-fawn with a tawny hue (Wikipedia, general species account).

Its peculiar appearance confused ornithologists, who assumed it belonged to the crow family; because of its remote range and undistinguished appearance it was barely studied for more than 100 years after Hume described it. The voice is a plaintive whistling cheep-cheep-cheep-cheep and a two-syllable finch-like call. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident of alpine and cold desert that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).