The yellow-fronted canary (''Crithagra mozambica'') is a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the

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

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

. It is sometimes known in

aviculture Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds, especially of wild birds in captivity. Aviculture Aviculture is the practice of keeping birds (class '' Aves'') in captivity in controlled conditions, normally within the confines of a ...

as the green singing finch or the ‘’’green singer’’’. This bird is a resident breeder in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

south of the

Sahara Desert The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

. Its

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, 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 manifestation of its ...

is open woodland and cultivation. It

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold Egg (biology), eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of ...

s in

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s, laying three or four eggs in a compact cup nest. It has been introduced to

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Rodrigues Rodrigues ( ; Mauritian Creole, Creole: ) is a Autonomous administrative division, autonomous Outer islands of Mauritius, outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Isl ...

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Assumption Island Assumption Island is a small island in the Outer Islands of Seychelles north of Madagascar, southwest of the capital, Victoria. In 2018, Seychelles and India signed an agreement to build and operate a joint military facility on a portion of ...

Mafia Island Mafia Island or Chole Shamba (''Kisiwa cha Mafia'', in Swahili) is an island of The Mafia Archipelago located in Mafia District in the southern Pwani Region of Tanzania across the Mafia Channel. The island is the third largest in Tanzanian ...

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, and the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

, where it is found on western

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, southeastern

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and

Molokai Molokai or Molokai ( or ; Molokaʻi dialect: Morotaʻi ) is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its g ...

. The yellow-fronted canary is a common, gregarious seedeater. It is 11–13 cm in length. The adult male has a green back and brown wings and tail. The underparts and rump are yellow, and the head is yellow with a grey crown and nape and a black malar stripe. The female is similar, but with a weaker head pattern and duller underparts. Juveniles are greyer than the female, especially on the head. Its song is a warbled ''zee-zeree-chereeo''.

Taxonomy

The yellow-fronted canary was formerly placed in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Serinus ''Serinus'' is a genus of small birds in the finch family Fringillidae found in West Asia, Europe and Africa. The birds usually have some yellow in their plumage. The genus was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch. Its n ...

'', 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 used ...

and

nuclear DNA Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. ...

sequences found that genus to be

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

. The genus was therefore split and a number of species including the yellow-fronted canary were moved to the resurrected genus ''

Crithagra ''Crithagra'' is a genus of small passerine birds in the finch family (Fringillidae). They live in Africa and Arabia. The species in this genus were formerly assigned to the genus '' Serinus'', but phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nucl ...

'' Swainson 1827.

Subspecies

Ten subspecies are accepted. *''C. m. mozambica'' (Müller, 1776) - Coastal Kenya and Mafia Island (Tanzania) south to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, eastern and southeastern Botswana, and northeastern South Africa (North West and Limpopo to Free State). Nominate subspecies. *''C. m. punctigula'' (Reichenow, 1898): Cameroon (north to Toukte, Grand Capitaine and Koum). Gray on the back of the head, with less extensive yellow markings on the forehead, and a duller yellow on the face and throat. Broad, dark eyestripe. Females have blackish spots on the chin and throat. *''C. m. caniceps'' (d'Orbigny, 1839): Senegal to Cameroon (south to Benue plain). Slightly less yellow on the forehead than ''C. m. mozambica.'' The yellow coloration on the head is reduced and duller, with a broad, dark eyestripe and gray coloration on the top and back of the head. The upperparts are olive-green. Similarly to ''C. m. punctigula'', females have blackish spots on the chin and throat. *''C. m. tando'': Gabon to north Angola and southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo; introduced to São Tomé island, São Tomé and Príncipe. Similar to ''C. m. samaliyae'', with a darker green coloration of the upperparts and a green tinge on the flanks. *''C. m. vansoni'': Extreme southeastern Angola and adjacent Namibia to north Botswana, south west Zambia. Paler yellow coloration, and the upperparts are less heavily streaked. *''C. m. barbata'': southern Chad, Central African Republic, western Sudan, western and southern South Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, southwestern Kenya, and central Tanzania. No gray coloration on the head, with a dark olive-gray eyestripe. The upperparts are a more yellowish olive-green, and the flanks are tinged green. *''C. m. samaliyae'': Southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to southwestern Tanzania and adjacent Zambia. Upperparts are more yellowish olive-green, with darker and heavier streaking on the back, golden-yellow underparts, and olive-green ear-coverts. *''C. m. grotei'': Southeastern Sudan (east of the Nile), eastern South Sudan, and western and southwestern Ethiopia. Extensive yellow on the forehead, with a grayish-olive eyestripe. The upperparts are yellow-green with some brown tinges, and the underparts are a paler yellow. *''C. m. gommaensis'': Eritrea and northwestern and central Ethiopia. Similar to ''C. m. barbata'', with less yellow on the forehead, and upperparts being a darker olive-green or tinged with brown. *''C. m. granti'' (Clancey, 1957) - Eastern South Africa (Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal south to Eastern Cape), eastern Eswatini, and southern Mozambique. Grayer mustache marking that often extends to meet gray on the neck, and the head and back are a deeper green with darker, heavier streaking. File:Yellow-fronted canary (Crithagra mozambica granti) male Kruger.jpg, male ''C. m. granti''

Kruger National Park Kruger National Park () is a national park in South Africa covering an area of in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in the country's northeast. It extends from north to south and from east to west. The administrative headquarters are i ...

File:Yellow-fronted canary (Crithagra mozambica granti) female Kruger.jpg, female ''C. m. granti''

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

File:Crithagra mozambica ssp. vansoni by tjeales on iNat June 29 2023.jpg, ''C. m. vansoni''

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

File:C. m. mozambica by andrewdeacon on iNat Nov 24 2023.jpg, ''C. m. mozambica'' South Africa File:Yellow-fronted canary (Crithagra mozambica tando).jpg, ''C. m. tando

São Tomé island São Tomé Island, at , is the largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe and is home in May 2018 to about 193,380 or 96% of the nation's population. The island is divided into six districts of São Tomé and Príncipe, districts. It is located ...

'' File:Serinus mozambicus barbatus alfajú hím.jpg, ''C. m. barbata'' Captive bird

References

* ''Birds of The Gambia'' by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, * ''Finches and Sparrows'' by Clement, Harris and Davis,

External links

* * * Yellow-fronted canary
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q27075822 yellow-fronted canary Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa yellow-fronted canary yellow-fronted canary