Cape Canary
Encyclopedia
The Cape Canary is a small passerine
bird
in the finch
family
. It is a resident breeder in eastern and southern Africa
and has been introduced to Mauritius
and Réunion
.
Its habitat
is fynbos
, grassland and gardens, preferably in highland areas. It builds a compact cup nest in a scrub.
The Cape Canary is 11–13 cm in length. The adult male has a green back with black edging to the wing feathers wings and tail. The underparts, rump and tail sides are yellow, and the lower belly is white. The rear head and neck are grey, and the face is cinnamon. The female is similar, but with a less grey on the head. The juvenile has greenish-yellow underparts with heavy brown streaking. This species is easily distinguished from the Yellow-fronted Canary
by its lack of black face markings.
The Cape Canary is a common and gregarious seedeater. Its call is tsit-it-it, and the song is warbled Goldfinch-like
trills and whistles given in display flight or from a high perch.
The East African form S. c flavivertex is very distinctive, much brighter, and with a yellow head, lacking the grey colour. It is sometimes given specific status as the Yellow-crowned Canary (S. flavivertex).
The Angola
n S. c huillensis is also a bright, yellow-headed subspecies.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
in the finch
Finch
The true finches are passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. They are predominantly seed-eating songbirds. Most are native to the Northern Hemisphere, but one subfamily is endemic to the Neotropics, one to the Hawaiian Islands, and one subfamily – monotypic at genus level – is found...
family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
. It is a resident breeder in eastern and southern Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and has been introduced to Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
and Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
.
Its habitat
Habitat (ecology)
A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism...
is fynbos
Fynbos
Fynbos is the natural shrubland or heathland vegetation occurring in a small belt of the Western Cape of South Africa, mainly in winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate...
, grassland and gardens, preferably in highland areas. It builds a compact cup nest in a scrub.
The Cape Canary is 11–13 cm in length. The adult male has a green back with black edging to the wing feathers wings and tail. The underparts, rump and tail sides are yellow, and the lower belly is white. The rear head and neck are grey, and the face is cinnamon. The female is similar, but with a less grey on the head. The juvenile has greenish-yellow underparts with heavy brown streaking. This species is easily distinguished from the Yellow-fronted Canary
Yellow-fronted Canary
The Yellow-fronted Canary is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is known elsewhere and in aviculture as the Green Singing Finch....
by its lack of black face markings.
The Cape Canary is a common and gregarious seedeater. Its call is tsit-it-it, and the song is warbled Goldfinch-like
European Goldfinch
The European Goldfinch or Goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family.-Habitat and range:The goldfinch breeds across Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia, in open, partially wooded lowlands. It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions...
trills and whistles given in display flight or from a high perch.
Phylogeny
This species is phylogeneticagy included within the group of Serinus alario now thriving around the southern Africa tip, together with Serinus syriacus (Asian distribution and Asian and African patches in winter) and Serinus pusillus (Asian distribution) Arnaiz-Villena et al, 1999Subspecies
Arranged alphabetically.- Serinus canicollis canicollis (Swainson, 1838)
- Serinus canicollis flavivertex (Blanford, 1869) – Yellow-crowned Canary
- Serinus canicollis griseitergum Clancey, 1967
- Serinus canicollis huillensis Sousa, 1889
- Serinus canicollis sassii Neumann, 1922
The East African form S. c flavivertex is very distinctive, much brighter, and with a yellow head, lacking the grey colour. It is sometimes given specific status as the Yellow-crowned Canary (S. flavivertex).
The Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
n S. c huillensis is also a bright, yellow-headed subspecies.