The yellow-fronted canary (Crithagra mozambica) is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is sometimes known in aviculture as the green singing finch or the green singer.
This bird is a resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Its habitat is open woodland and cultivation. It nests in trees, laying three or four eggs in a compact cup nest. It has been introduced to Mauritius, Rodrigues, Réunion, Assumption Island, Mafia Island, Puerto Rico, and the Hawaiian Islands, where it is found on western Hawaii, southeastern Oahu and Molokai.
The yellow-fronted canary is a common, gregarious seedeater. It is 11–13 cm in length. The adult male has a green back and brown wings and tail. The underparts and rump are yellow, and the head is yellow with a grey crown and nape and a black malar stripe. The female is similar, but with a weaker head pattern and duller underparts. Juveniles are greyer than the female, especially on the head.
Its song is a warbled zee-zeree-chereeo.
Taxonomy
The yellow-fronted canary was formerly placed in the genus Serinus, but phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences found the genus to be polyphyletic. The genus was therefore split and a number of species including the yellow-fronted canary were moved to the resurrected genus Crithagra Swainson 1827.
Subspecies
Ten subspecies are accepted.
- C. m. mozambica (Müller, 1776) - Coastal Kenya and Mafia Island (Tanzania) south to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, eastern and southeastern Botswana, and northeastern South Africa (North West and Limpopo to Free State). Nominate subspecies.
- C. m. punctigula (Reichenow, 1898): Cameroon (north to Toukte, Grand Capitaine and Koum). Gray on the back of the head, with less extensive yellow markings on the forehead, and a duller yellow on the face and throat. Broad, dark eyestripe. Females have blackish spots on the chin and throat.