Corsican Finch
Carduelis corsicana
Endemic to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia where it occurs in open lowland scrub to montane dry scrub and open to semiopen coniferous forests. A small finch with a bright yellow face and breast and a brown streaky back. Males brighter than females. Song is a jumbled twitter and calls include various tittering and whistled calls; all fairly similar to Citril Finch calls, but ranges do not overlap.
Identification
It has dark-streaked brown upperparts and brighter yellow underparts than the citril finch does.
Taxonomy
The first formal description of the Corsican finch was by the German zoologist Alexander Koenig in 1899 under the binomial name Citrinella corsicana. It was formerly regarded a subspecies of the citril finch, but it differs in morphology and vocalizations (Förschler & Kalko, 2007) as well as mtDNA sequence (Sangster, 2000, contra Pasquet & Thibault, 1997, Förschler et al. 2009) and they are now considered distinct species (Sangster et al., 2002, Förschler et al. 2009).
- Scientific name
- Carduelis corsicana
- Authority
- (Koenig, AF, 1899)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Fringillidae
- Genus
- Carduelis
Range and habitat
It is endemic to the Mediterranean islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Elba, Capraia and Gorgona.
- Breeding range
- PAL : insular temperate sw Palearctic in open forest to scrub: Corsica, Gorgona, Capraia and Elba (ne of Corsica) and Sardinia
- Non-breeding range
- to lower elevations
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
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