Carduelis citrinella
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The citril finch (Carduelis citrinella), also known as the Alpine citril finch, is a small songbird, a member of the true finch family, Fringillidae. This bird is a resident breeder in the mountains of southwestern Europe from Spain to the Alps. Its northernmost breeding area is found in the Black Forest of southwestern Germany.
The citril finch was formally described by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 under the binomial name Fringilla citrinella. Long considered to be closely related to the European serin and the Cape canary, it was traditionally placed with them in the genus Serinus, until a genetic study in 2007 showed that, despite the plumage differences, it was more closely related to the European goldfinch; a second study in 2012 confirmed this, leading to its formal transfer to the genus Carduelis in 2013.
The Corsican finch (Carduelis corsicana) of Corsica and Sardinia was at one time considered as conspecific with the citril finch, but is now treated as a separate species. Carduelis is the Latin word for the European goldfinch, and the specific epithet citrinella is the Italian word for a small yellow bird, from a diminutive... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aigüestortes National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 5 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 6 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 7 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 8 | Picos de Europa National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Citril Finch sighting in Mercantour National Park on a given day, based on 26 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 50th most-seen of the 79 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Citril Finch in Mercantour National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May, the lowest month. That is one of Mercantour National Park's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain against 140 mm in October. March and November–January have too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Citril Finch sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Citril Finch sightings, Mercantour National Park ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Aigüestortes National Park (Spain, about 30%), Pyrénées National Park (France, about 20%) and Vanoise National Park (France, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Citril Finch is recorded against all the birds logged in Mercantour National Park (26 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
