The black-chinned siskin (''Spinus barbatus'') is a species of

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

in the family

Fringillidae The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

. Found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

, its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are temperate

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s and heavily degraded former forest.

Description

The black-chinned siskin grows to a length of about . The male has the crown and the centre of the upper throat black. The rest of the head and the upper parts of the body are yellowish-olive streaked with black. The rump is yellow and the wings are black with two yellowish bars and a yellow patch on the primary feathers. The underparts are greenish-yellow and the belly is white. The appearance of the female is similar to the male but the colouring is more muted. She lacks the black on head and throat. The head and back are a greyish-olive above with pale yellowish-olive underparts and a whitish belly. The only other bird with which it is likely to be confused is the

hooded siskin The hooded siskin (''Spinus magellanicus'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family (Fringillidae), native to South America. It belongs to the putative clade of neotropical siskins in the genus '' Spinus sensu lato''. There are 11 subspe ...

(''Spinus magellanica''); however, that bird is not found so far south, the male has a larger area of black on head and throat, and the female has a yellow rump.

Distribution and habitat

The black-chinned siskin is native to southern Chile and southern Argentina as far south as

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...

, and also the

. It ranges up to about in altitude and inhabits the edges of forests, light woodland and bushy areas, including gardens and urban areas; it is usually seen in flocks and often feeds on the ground.

Phylogeny

The phylogeny of this species has been researched by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al. Evidence of hybridization was found between ''Serinus canaria domestica'' and ''S. barbatus'' in captivity.

Status

The black-chinned siskin is a common species with a very wide range and the population seems to be stable, so the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

has rated its conservation status as being of '

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10820714 black-chinned siskin Birds of Chile Birds of Patagonia Birds of the Falkland Islands black-chinned siskin Taxonomy articles created by Polbot