Black-headed Canary (Serinus alario)

Other Names (World)
Black-headed Canary, Mountain Canary, Damara Canary (leucolaemus), Damara Blackhead Canary (leucolaemus), Namibia Canary (leucolaemus)

Family
Fringillidae (Finches)

Size
12 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Range (Guide)

Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa.

Vagrant to Botswana.

Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2011).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Voice
Song is a fast, jumbled canary twitter. A 'sooeee' uttered in contact.

Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (25)...)

Black-headed Canary (Serinus alario) [XC720272]
by Lynette Rudman from Zeekoegat mountain, Rouville, Free State, South Africa (call, flight call)

Black-headed Canary (Serinus alario) [XC391059]
by Peter Boesman from Grahamstown, Western District, Eastern Cape, South Africa (song)

Subspecies
Black-headed Canary (Serinus alario) and Damara Canary (Serinus leucolaema) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Serinus alario following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993).

Subspecies leucolaemus intergrades widely with nominate in north-western South Africa.

The following 2 subspecies are recognised:

leucolaemus (Sharpe, 1903) - Southern Namibia and north-western and west-central South Africa (Northern Cape east to western Free State). Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Damara Canary (Serinus leucolaema).
alario (Linnaeus, 1758) - Western and central South Africa (central northern Cape east to southern Free State, south to central and southern Karoo) and Lesotho.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Black-headed Canary (Serinus alario) - 10 files

More Information

BirdLife International

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BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

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