Although sometimes considered a full species (Pyrrhula cineracea), most authorities treat it a subspecies of the Eurasian bullfinch.

[citation needed] In Kazakhstan the Baikal bullfinch is a rare resident and common winter visitor.

[6] On post-breeding dispersal and in winter, it occurs mainly in the foothills and plains of eastern Kazakhstan, sometimes as far west as Semipalatinsk, Kurgaldzhino Reserve and Astana, Almaty, the Chu-Iliyskiye Mountains and at Kyzylorda in the Syr Darya valley.

Fledglings and independent juvenile birds have been recorded from mid-July to early August.

Dispersal from the breeding range begins in August and September, with birds appearing in southeastern Kazakhstan from the end of October to early November, and remaining there until mid-May.