Stunning and distinctive small finch of the high Andes; favors puna grasslands with shrubs, rocky slopes, and bogs. Black head and body is diagnostic among siskins; yellow wing and tail patches mostly concealed on perched birds, but very flashy in flight. Sexes look similar, but juvenile has an orangish bill and buffy wingbars. Feeds in low bushes and on the ground, sometimes in association with other small seed-eating birds, but also in small groups of its own kind.