Trumpeter Finch

The trumpeter finch is a small finch, mainly of deserts, found in North Africa and Spain through to southern Asia, and in central Asia ranging from Iran north to Kazakhstan and east to India. It has a large head and a short, very thick bill; the summer male has a red bill, a grey head and neck and pale brown upperparts, with the breast, rump and tail pink, the tail with dark terminal feathers. Winter males, females and young are a very washed-out version of the breeding male (Wikipedia, general species account).

The song is a buzzing nasal trill like a tin trumpet. It breeds from the Canary Islands eastwards across North Africa, as far south as Mauritania, Mali and Chad, with isolated populations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti, and the normal clutch is four to six eggs. It has occurred as a vagrant north of its breeding range. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant of grassland and scrub that eats plants and seeds, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).