Red siskin
species of bird
The red siskin (Spinus cucullatus) is a small endangered finch.
Distribution
It is native to tropical South America - in northern Colombia, northern Venezuela (where it is called the "cardenalito") and Guyana. It was common in the early 20th century, occurring throughout the foothills of northern Venezuela, but has now become extremely rare in a fragmented range. The population on Trinidad is believed to be extirpated, with no sightings since 1960. An introduced population derived from escaped cagebirds in Puerto Rico has since thought to become extinct.
Description
The red siskin is about 10 cm long. The male is mainly deep red, with black on the head, throat, flight feathers and tail tip, and a whitish lower belly and under tail. The female is grey on the head, breast, and upper parts, apart from a red rump and upper tail. The breast is grey with reddish flanks, and the rest of the underparts, the wings and tail resemble the corresponding areas of the male. Immature females are paler than the adults, and immature males are brown rather than red.
“Red siskin” enters the record as species of bird. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what siskin, species and bird can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Red siskin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, siskin, species and bird provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q27075875. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1960.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Red 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.