 In 2012, the bird was photographed 1500 km from the original collection location.This species was originally placed in the genus "Leucosticte" but a phylogenetic study using mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2016 found that Sillem's mountain finch was a sister species to the Tibetan rosefinch ("Carpodacus roborowskii").The International Ornithological Committee therefore moved Sillem's mountain finch to the genus "Carpodacus".