Carpodacus sipahi
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The scarlet finch (Carpodacus sipahi) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is found in the Himalayas from Uttarakhand state in the Indian Himalayas eastwards across Nepal, stretching further east to the adjacent hills of Northeast India and Southeast Asia as far south as Thailand. It is resident in the Himalayas, but many birds winter to the immediate south. Its natural habitat is temperate forests.
It was described by the British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1836 under the binomial name Corythus sipahi. The species name sipahi comes from the Hindustani word sipāhi for a soldier or the Anglicised form sepoy, for the red uniform worn by those in the employment of the East India Company.
The scarlet finch was formerly placed in the monotypic genus Haematospiza but was moved to the rosefinch genus Carpodacus based on the results of molecular phylogenetic studies. Wikipedia →
Call0:09
Bhutan · 2015
© Norbu · XC319941 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 2 | Langtang National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Scarlet Finch sighting in Langtang National Park on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 181st most-seen of the 225 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Scarlet Finch in Langtang National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June and August–April, the lowest months. Those are among Langtang National Park's wettest months, with about 260 mm of rain a month against 10 mm in November.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Scarlet Finch sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Scarlet Finch sightings, Langtang National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Royal Manas National Park (Bhutan, under 5%).
Same genus: Carpodacus
The closest relatives of the Scarlet Finch that you can see in Langtang National Park (genus Carpodacus, Typical Rosefinches) are Himalayan Beautiful Rosefinch (about 30%), Pink-browed Rosefinch (about 30%) and Himalayan White-browed Rosefinch (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scarlet Finch is recorded against all the birds logged in Langtang National Park (11 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.
