Montifringilla nivalis
Silhouette: Andrew Butko (modified) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The white-winged snowfinch (Montifringilla nivalis) is a small passerine bird. Despite its name, it is a sparrow rather than a true finch. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the white-winged snowfinch in his Ornithologie based on a specimen but without specifying where it had been collected. He used the French name Le pinçon de neige ou la niverolle and the Latin Fringilla nivalis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the white-winged snowfinch. Linnaeus included a brief description, used the binomial name Fringilla nivalis and cited Brisson's work. Linnaeus listed the type location as "America". The type location was subsequently designated as Switzerland. The specific name nivalis is Latin for 'snowy' or 'snow-white'. This species is now placed in the genus Montifringilla that was introduced by the German ornithologist... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Picos de Europa National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Hohe Tauern National Park | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 5 | Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 6 | Ecrins National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 7 | Triglav National Park | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | |
| 8 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alpenzoo Innsbruck | 🇦🇹 Austria |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a White-winged Snowfinch sighting in Vanoise National Park on a given day, based on 147 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 34th most-seen of the 81 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and December
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a White-winged Snowfinch in Vanoise National Park on a given day, against about 10% in September, the lowest month. November has too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-winged Snowfinch sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate White-winged Snowfinch sightings, Vanoise National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 60%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-winged Snowfinch is recorded against all the birds logged in Vanoise National Park (147 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.
