Serinus Totally Explained

Everything about Serinus totally explained

The genus Serinus is a large genus of birds in the finch family Fringillidae found mostly in the Afrotropical region with some outlying species in Europe and Asia. The genus contains several species groups including canaries, citrils, seedeaters and the African siskins. The majority of species are small to medium sized birds with green and yellow, often streaky plumage though there are a few notable exceptions.
The treatment of the Canary group as a single genus has been subject to much debate, with behavioural and vocal characters being used to divide it into seven or more genera. Recent investigations using part of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene have suggested the genus consists of two main clades (Serinus sensu stricto and Crithagra) separated by certain members of the genus Carduelis, and these may be better treated as two separate genera. Species in the Crithagra clade could conceivably be split further into several more (sub)genera and may well be once relationships within the clade are better resolved. In the list below they're arranged in the groups as suggested in various publications for example(Elzen et al) and (Ryan et al).

Serinus sensu stricto

Red-fronted Serin, Serinus pusillus
European Serin, Serinus serinus
Syrian Serin, Serinus syriacus
Canary, Serinus canaria
Cape Canary, Serinus canicollis
Yellow-crowned Canary, Serinus flavivertex
Abyssinian Siskin, Serinus nigriceps
Black-headed Canary, Serinus alario (sometimes placed in genus Alario)

(Sub)Genus: Crithagra

Dendrospiza group

African Citril, Serinus citrinelloides

Black-faced Canary, Serinus capistratus

Papyrus Canary, Serinus koliensis

Forest Canary, Serinus scotops

Ochrospiza group

White-rumped Seedeater, Serinus leucopygius

Yemen Serin, Serinus menachensis

Olive-rumped Serin, Serinus rothschildi

Yellow-throated Serin, Serinus flavigula

Salvadori's Serin, Serinus xantholaemus

Black-throated Canary, Serinus atrogularis

Yellow-rumped Serin, Serinus xanthopygius

Lemon-breasted Seedeater, Serinus citrinipectus

Yellow-fronted Canary, Serinus mozambicus

White-bellied Canary, Serinus dorsostriatus

Crithagra group

Northern Grosbeak-canary, Serinus donaldsoni

Southern Grosbeak-canary, Serinus buchanani

Yellow Canary, Serinus flaviventris

Brimstone Canary, Serinus sulphuratus

White-throated Canary, Serinus albogularis

Poliospiza group

Black-eared Seedeater, Serinus mennelli

Brown-rumped Seedeater, Serinus tristriatus

Streaky-headed Seedeater, Serinus gularis

Reichard's Seedeater, Serinus reichardi

Pseudochloroptila group

Cape Siskin, Serinus totta

Drakensberg Siskin, Serinus symonsi

Group uncertain

Protea Canary, Serinus leucopterus

Streaky Seedeater, Serinus striolatus

Thick-billed Seedeater, Serinus burtoni

Principe Seedeater, Serinus rufobrunneus

Genus uncertain

These species may be related to various groups currently classified as members of Carduelis:

Mountain Serin, Serinus estherae

Tibetan Serin, Serinus thibetanus

Ankober Serin, Serinus ankoberensis The Citril Finch and the Corsican Finch are now placed in the genus Carduelis as Carduelis citrinella and Carduelis corsicana (Arnaiz-Villena et al., 1998).

Further Information

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