Serinus flavivertex
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The yellow-crowned canary (Serinus flavivertex) is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is a resident breeder in eastern Africa. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Cape canary (Serinus canicollis).
Its habitat is fynbos, grassland and gardens, preferably in highland areas. It builds a compact cup nest in a scrub. The yellow-crowned canary is 11–13 cm in length. The adult male has a green back with black edging to the wings and tail. The underparts, rump and tail sides are yellow, and the lower belly is white. The head is brighter in colour than the Cape canary, yellow in colour, and the face is cinnamon. The juvenile has greenish-yellow underparts with heavy brown streaking.
The yellow-crowned canary is a common and gregarious seedeater. Its call is tsit-it-it, and the song is warbled goldfinch-like trills and whistles given in display flight or from a high perch. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aberdare National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Volcanoes National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 3 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 4 | Nyungwe National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 5 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 6 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 10 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 11 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 2 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-crowned Canary sighting in Virunga National Park on a given day, based on 35 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 156th most-seen of the 316 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.
July
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-crowned Canary in Virunga National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January, March–April, June, August and October–November, the lowest months. That is one of Virunga National Park's driest months, with about 80 mm of rain against 250 mm in May.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-crowned 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.
5th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Yellow-crowned Canary sightings, Virunga National Park ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Aberdare National Park (Kenya, about 40%), Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda, about 10%) and Bale Mountains National Park (Ethiopia, about 10%).
Same family: Fringillidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-crowned Canary that you can see in Virunga National Park (family Fringillidae, Finches, Euphonias, and Allies) are Streaky Seedeater (about 40%), Yellow-fronted Canary (about 10%) and Western Citril (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-crowned Canary is recorded against all the birds logged in Virunga National Park (35 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.
