Cape Siskin (Crithagra totta)
About the Cape Siskin
The Cape siskin (Crithagra totta) is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is an endemic resident breeder in the southern Cape Province of South Africa. This locally common but shy and unobtrusive siskin is found in the southwestern and southern Cape's rocky slopes, coastal cliffs and fynbos-covered mountains. It also occurs in towns and the suburbs of Cape Town. The Cape siskin was formerly placed in the genus Serinus but phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences found that the genus was polyphyletic. The genus was therefore split and a number of species including the Cape siskin were moved to the resurrected genus Crithagra. The Cape siskin is closely related to the Drakensberg siskin, and the two have sometimes been treated as conspecific.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 16 recordings for this species: 12 CC BY-NC-ND · 4 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in South Africa in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- African CitrilCrithagra citrinelloidesrecording
- Reichenow's SeedeaterCrithagra reichenowirecording
- Streaky SeedeaterCrithagra striolatarecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.