Data from: Museomics help resolving the phylogeny of snowfinches (Aves, Passeridae, Montifringilla and allies)

<p>Historical specimens from museum collections provide a valuable source of material also from remote areas or regions of conflict that are not easily accessible to scientists today. With this study, we are providing a taxon-complete phylogeny of snowfinches using historical DNA from whole skins of an endemic species from Afghanistan, the Afghan snowfinch, <em>Pyrgilauda theresae</em>. To resolve the strong conflict between previous phylogenetic hypotheses, we generated novel mitogenome sequences for selected taxa and genome-wide SNP data using from ddRAD sequencing for all extant snowfinch species endemic to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) and for an extended intraspecific sampling of the sole Central and Western Palearctic snowfinch species (<em>Montifringilla nivalis</em>).</p>