It may not look like much but this is one of the world's rarest birds.
Sillem's mountain finch was first spotted in Aksai Chin, Xinjiang, by Dutch ornithologist Jerome Sillem in 1929. It was not seen again until this June, when another was snapped by a French nature photographer, Yann Muzika, in the Yenigou valley, Qinghai, 1,500 kilometres away.
Writing on his blog, Yann revealed that he 'did not venture into the upper reaches of Yenigou Valley... with any scientific goal, and it was not a birdwatching nor a photography expedition either'. He added: "It was just a trek with 2 friends, that was about to fail since Bertrand and myself were struggling hard with a food poisoning.
"After setting up camp, there was still time to explore the surroundings and that’s when I had the first sighting, and photography, of a finch that I had not seen before. It was sitting quietly among a loose flock of what I identified as being female Tibetan Rosefinches (Kozlowia roborowski), a bird that I had not seen before either, but that was on my short list of 'birds to look for' during the trek."
Not recognising the bird, and unable to determine what it was, Yann sent the photograph to Krys Kazmierczak of the Oriental Bird Images database for the Oriental Bird Club.
Yann added: "He immediately realised the significance of the 'mystery bird" photo that had been emailed to him."