Citril Finch

The Citril Finch (Carduelis citrinella) is a small songbird, a member of the true finch family Fringillidae. For a long time, this cardueline finch was placed in the genus Serinus, but it is apparently very closely related to the European Goldfinch (C. carduelis).Arnaiz-Villena et al. (1998-99), van den Elzen & Khoury (1999)

This bird is a resident breeder in the mountains of southwestern Europe from Spain to the Alps. Its northernmost breeding area is found in the Black Forest of southwestern Germany. Individuals recorded further north are probably escaped from captivity, as most such records are from some time ago. For example, Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden specimen 582 is a first-year male shot supposedly in Saxony earlier than 1849; that museum's specimen 21956 was the skull of another Citril Finch presumably taken in Saxony 1915, but it was destroyed in World War II.

Description and systematics

12 cm (not quite 5 in) long, the Citril Finch is greyish above, with a brown tinge to the back which also has black streaks. The underparts and the double wing bars are yellow. It shares with its relatives a bright face mask which in this species is also yellow.

Sexes are similar, although young females may be duller below, and juvenile birds – unlike in European Serinus species – are brown, lacking any yellow or green in the plumage.

The song is...
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