Serinus canaria
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria), known worldwide simply as the wild canary and also called the island canary, common canary, or canary, is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Serinus in the true finch family, Fringillidae. It is native to the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Madeira. Wild birds are mostly yellow-green, with brownish streaking on the back. The species is common in captivity and a number of colour varieties have been bred.
This bird is the natural symbol of the Canary Islands, together with the Canary Island date palm. The Atlantic canary was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla canaria. In 1555 the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner had used the Latin name Canaria for the species in his book Historia animalium. The Atlantic canary is now one of eight species placed in the genus Serinus that was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch. The species is considered to be monotypic, with no subspecies being recognised; domesticated canaries are sometimes cited as...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pico Island Natural Park (Azores) | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 2 | Teno-Rasca Marine Strip (Tenerife) | 🇪🇸 Spain |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report an Island Canary sighting in Teno-Rasca Marine Strip (Tenerife) on a given day, based on 534 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 7th most-seen of the 70 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–June and September
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report an Island Canary in Teno-Rasca Marine Strip (Tenerife) on a given day, against about 50% in April, July–August and November, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Island Canary sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Island Canary sightings, Teno-Rasca Marine Strip (Tenerife) ranks 2nd at about 60%. The best odds are in Pico Island Natural Park (Azores) (Portugal, about 90%).
Same family: Fringillidae
The closest relatives of the Island Canary that you can see in Teno-Rasca Marine Strip (Tenerife) (family Fringillidae, Finches, Euphonias, and Allies) are Tenerife Blue Chaffinch (about 20%) and Eurasian Goldfinch (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Island Canary is recorded against all the birds logged in Teno-Rasca Marine Strip (Tenerife) (534 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.
