Linaria flavirostris
Silhouette: Oier Frias Abecia · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The twite (Linaria flavirostris) is a small brown passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is a partially migratory species that is found in a strongly disjunct distribution in northern Europe, and in Asian mountains from eastern Turkey to Nepal, western China and Mongolia. It mainly feeds on small seeds but occasionally also feeds on insects.
In 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the twite in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Fringilla flavirostris. The twite and the closely related linnets were at one time placed in the genus Carduelis but were moved to the resurrected genus Linaria based on a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences that was published in 2012. The genus had originally been described in 1802 by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein. The genus name linaria is the Latin for a linen-weaver, from linum, "flax". The specific epithet flavirostris means "yellow-billed".
Nine subspecies are recognised: L... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Hemis National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 5 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ulaanbaatar | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Saint Petersburg | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 3 | Copenhagen | 🇩🇰 Denmark | |
| 4 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Twite sighting in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 133rd most-seen of the 140 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Twite in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, against under 5% in December to October, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Twite sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Twite sightings, Cairngorms National Park ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 40%), Hemis National Park (India, about 10%) and Wadden Sea National Park (Germany, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Twite is recorded against all the birds logged in Cairngorms National Park (10 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
