Black-faced Firefinch

Black-faced Firefinch

Lagonosticta larvata

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~10% · With luck
at Niokolo-Koba National Park

In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%

28 Verified sightings at Niokolo-Koba National Park From 2019 to 2026
28 In 1 park
February Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Black-faced Firefinch

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 Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:15

Senegal · 2018

© Bram Piot · XC405752 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:42

Ethiopia · 2015

© Peter Boesman · XC300358 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Call0:24

Ethiopia · 2014

© Andrew Spencer · XC209966 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Niokolo-Koba National Park 🇸🇳 Senegal
~10%

More parks will be added in future updates.

Zoos & Centres Where Found

# Zoo / Centre Country
1 Berlin Zoological Garden 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
2 Aquarium Berlin 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Black-faced Firefinch in Niokolo-Koba National Park?

With luck

About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Firefinch sighting in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, based on 28 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 147th most-seen of the 215 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Black-faced Firefinch in Niokolo-Koba National Park?

February

In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Firefinch in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, September and November–January, the lowest months. That is one of Niokolo-Koba National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 300 mm in August. May–July and October have too few records to rate.

What time of day is best to see a Black-faced Firefinch?

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.

Where else can you see a Black-faced Firefinch?

Only Niokolo-Koba National Park, in our data

Niokolo-Koba National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Black-faced Firefinch sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.

Where does the Black-faced Firefinch sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Black-faced Firefinch is recorded against all the birds logged in Niokolo-Koba National Park (28 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.

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