Common Rosefinch

Medium-sized, dumpy finch with a stubby bill. Male are distinctive with a red head, breast, and rump, brown eye-mask, and white belly. The amount of red varies with age. Females and juveniles are a rather unprepossessing, uniform brown inviting confusion with female House Sparrows; note the two pale wingbars. Breeds at both low and high elevations in deciduous scrub, meadows, and marsh edges as well as clearings in forest. Far-carrying, whistled, typically 3-note song is memorable.

It occurs as a vagrant in Sri Lanka. They are found in summer in thickets, woodland and forest edges near rivers and in winter in gardens and orchards, wetlands and locally in dry oak woods.

Common Rosefinches mainly eat seeds and buds alongside some fruit and berries. They will also supplement their diet with invertebrates, especially during the breeding season.