Lagonosticta larvata
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The black-faced firefinch (Lagonosticta larvata) is a common species of estrildid finch found in Africa. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 2,100,000 km2. It is found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo and Uganda. The status of the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
Lagonosticta vinacea was a separate species, but findings by Dowsett and Forbes-Watson in 1993 led to reassigning of the L. vinacea species as a population under L. larvata. BirdLife Species Factsheet
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mole National Park | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 2 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Aquarium Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Firefinch sighting in Mole National Park on a given day, based on 63 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 136th most-seen of the 266 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–April, June, August and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Firefinch in Mole National Park on a given day, against about 10% in May, September–October and December–February, the lowest months. July has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-faced Firefinch sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Black-faced Firefinch sightings, Mole National Park has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 10%).
Same genus: Lagonosticta
The closest relatives of the Black-faced Firefinch that you can see in Mole National Park (genus Lagonosticta, Firefinches) are Red-billed Firefinch (about 50%) and Bar-breasted Firefinch (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-faced Firefinch is recorded against all the birds logged in Mole National Park (63 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.
