Black-throated Canary - BirdForum Opus

Alternative Name: Southern Yellow-rumped Seedeater

Serinus atrogularis

Male
Photo by Max Holdt
Windhoek, Namibia, January 2006

Crithagra atrogularis

Identification

Length 12-14 cm. A pale grey-brown canary with a blackish throat, yellow rump and a white-tipped tail.

Similar species

Kenya Yellow-rumped Seedeater and Abyssinian Yellow-rumped Seedeater do not have a blackish throat, and ranges do not overlap.

Distribution

Female
Photo by safariranger
Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, Johannesburg, South Africa, June 2007

Africa: From Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo in the north to South Africa in the south.

Taxonomy

Sometimes considered conspecific with Kenya Yellow-rumped Seedeater and Abyssinian Yellow-rumped Seedeater.²
Placed in genus Crithagra by Gill and Donsker.

Subspecies^[1]

This species has seven subspecies:

• S. a. somereni:

• Eastern Zaire, north-western Tanzania, Uganda and western Kenya

• S. a. lwenarum:

• Congo, southern Zaire, central Angola, Zambia and south-western Tanzania

• S. a. deserti:

• Southern Angola, Namibia and Cape Province

• S. a. semideserti:

• Southern Angola to northern Namibia, Botswana, southern Zambia and north-western Transvaal

• S. a. atrogularis:

• Transvaal to adjacent northern Free State, south-eastern Botswana and Zimbabwe

• S. a. impiger:

• North-eastern Cape Province to Free State, Lesotho, south-eastern Transvaal, Natal

• S. a. seshekeensis:

• South-western Zimbabwe

Habitat

Dry woodland, dry savanna, dry shrubland, fields and gardens. Generally near water.

Behaviour

The diet includes primarily seeds but they also take flowers, nectar, tree sap and insects, particularly termite alates.

References

1. Clements JF. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2008. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
2. Dickinson EC (ed.) 2003. The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd ed. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. ISBN 9780691117010
3. Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ & Ryan PG (eds) 2005. Robert's Birds of Southern Africa, 7th edition. John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town, South Africa. ISBN 0620340533

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Black-throated Canary. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 24 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Black-throated_Canary

External Links

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