Crithagra burtoni
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The thick-billed seedeater (Crithagra burtoni) is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. It is native to the Western High Plateau and Bioko, the Albertine rift montane forests and the East African montane forests.
The thick-billed seedeater 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 thick-billed seedeater were moved to the resurrected genus Crithagra. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aberdare National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Nyungwe National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 4 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Volcanoes National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 6 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 8 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Thick-billed Seedeater sighting in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, based on 264 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 155th most-seen of the 519 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–April and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Thick-billed Seedeater in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, against under 5% in June and December–January, the lowest months. Those are among Ngorongoro Conservation Area's wettest months, with about 140 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Thick-billed Seedeater sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Thick-billed Seedeater sightings, Ngorongoro Conservation Area ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Aberdare National Park (Kenya, about 30%), Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda, about 20%) and Nyungwe National Park (Rwanda, about 20%).
Same genus: Crithagra
The closest relatives of the Thick-billed Seedeater that you can see in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (genus Crithagra, African Seedeaters, Serins, Canaries, and Citrils) are Streaky Seedeater (about 30%), White-bellied Canary (about 20%) and Southern Citril (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Thick-billed Seedeater is recorded against all the birds logged in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (264 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.
