Cape siskin
species of bird
The Cape siskin (Crithagra totta) is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is an endemic resident breeder in the southern Cape Province of South Africa.
This locally common but shy and unobtrusive siskin is found in the southwestern and southern Cape's rocky slopes, coastal cliffs and fynbos-covered mountains. It also occurs in towns and the suburbs of Cape Town.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Cape siskin was formerly placed in the genus Serinus but phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences found that the genus was polyphyletic. The genus was therefore split and a number of species including the Cape siskin were moved to the resurrected genus Crithagra.
The Cape siskin is closely related to the Drakensberg siskin, and the two have sometimes been treated as conspecific.
Description
The Cape siskin averages 13 cm in length. The flight feathers and tail have white spots on the tips which are diagnostic for both sexes, and especially visible in flight. The adult male has a light brown back, wing coverts, rump and upper tail and yellow underparts.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cape siskin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.