The yellow canary (''Crithagra flaviventris'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is a resident breeder in much of the western and central regions of southern Africa and has been introduced to Ascension and

St Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

islands.

Taxonomy

The yellow canary was formerly placed in the genus '' Serinus'' but phylogenetic analysis using

mitochondrial A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is use ...

and nuclear DNA sequences found that the genus was polyphyletic. The genus was therefore split and a number of species including the yellow canary were moved to the resurrected genus '' Crithagra''. For an overview of finch phylogeny (including canaries) see the entry on finches.

Description

The yellow canary is typically 13 cm in length. The adult male colour ranges from almost uniform yellow in the northwest of its range to streaked, olive backed birds in the southeast. The underparts, rump and tail sides are yellow. The female has grey-brown upperparts, black wings with yellow flight feathers, and a pale

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...

. The underparts are white with brown streaking. The juvenile resembles the female, but has heavier streaking. This species is easily distinguished from the

yellow-fronted canary The yellow-fronted canary (''Crithagra mozambica'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is sometimes known in aviculture as the green singing finch. The yellow-fronted canary was formerly placed in the genus ''Serinus'', but phylo ...

by its lack of black facial markings, and its bill is less heavy than that of other similar African ''Crithagra'' species. The brimstone canary, with overlapping range, is a known confusion species.

Distribution and habitat

Its habitat is

karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

and coastal or mountain valley scrub. It builds a compact cup nest in a scrub. The yellow canary is a common and gregarious seedeater. Its call is ''chissick'' or ''cheree'', and the song is a warbled ''zee-zeree-chereeo''. Serinus flaviventris 2013 03 09

References

* Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, ''SASOL Birds of Southern Africa'' (Struik 2002) * Clement, Harris and Davis, ''Finches and Sparrows'' by

External links

* Yellow canary
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q27075837 yellow canary Birds of Southern Africa yellow canary