Porphyrospiza alaudina
Silhouette: Manabu Sakamoto · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The band-tailed sierra finch (Rhopospina alaudina) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. The band-tailed sierra finch has a complicated taxonomic history that is not yet fully resolved. It was formally described in 1833 with the binomial Fringilla alaudina. By the early twentieth century it had been reassigned to the genus Phrygilus. At some time after 1993 some systems again reassigned it, this time to genus Porphyrospiza. That genus was long in family Emberizidae which at the time held many New and Old World species. There it was grouped with the cardinalines which were later separated as the family Cardinalidae. A study published in 2007 showed that the genus belonged in its present tanager family Thraupidae. Beginning in 2019 most taxonomic systems began reassigning the band-tailed sierra finch to the resurrected genus Rhopospina that had been erected in 1851. However, in 2016 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World moved it from Phrygilus to Corydospiza and as of late 2025 retains it there.
The band-tailed sierra finch has these six subspecies... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lauca National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Band-tailed Sierra-Finch sighting in Lauca National Park on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 106th most-seen of the 112 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Band-tailed Sierra-Finch in Lauca National Park on a given day, against under 5% in December to October, the lowest months. That is one of Lauca National Park's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain against 150 mm in January.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Band-tailed Sierra-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.
Only Lauca National Park, in our data
Lauca National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Band-tailed Sierra-Finch sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the Band-tailed Sierra-Finch that you can see in Lauca National Park (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Black-hooded Sierra-Finch (about 70%), Ash-breasted Sierra-Finch (about 60%) and Mourning Sierra-Finch (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Band-tailed Sierra-Finch is recorded against all the birds logged in Lauca 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.
