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  Profile

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  In flight

Songbirds

Saffron Finch

Sicalis flaveola

• uncommon
• 38 km/h
• Least Concern

Uniformly golden yellow except for an orange forehead flash. Nests in other birds' abandoned cavities.

Population

Not numerically quantified by BirdLife/IUCN; described as common and widespread across its range

Habitat

Open and semi-open lowland areas — pastures, savanna, second-growth scrub, agricultural land, and towns/suburbs (readily visits bird feeders) — from sea level up to about 2,000 m, generally outside the dense Amazon basin

Fun fact

Despite folk names like "saffron canary" and a long history as a caged songbird (its polygamous, territorial males were even caged together for blood-sport fighting rings), the Saffron Finch is not a canary at all — it is a tanager (family Thraupidae, formerly placed in Emberizidae) native to South America.

Range

Native to northern and central South America: Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Trinidad and Tobago, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northern Argentina; introduced populations established in Hawaii, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica

Diet

Primarily granivorous, foraging on the ground for grass and weed seeds and grain; readily takes supplemental food at feeders and bird tables

Size

0.15 m

Lifespan

9.6 years