Black-headed Canary (Serinus alario)
About the Black-headed Canary
The black-headed canary (Serinus alario) is a species of finch found in Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. It is sometimes placed in the genus Alario as Alario alario Its habitat is dry open scrub and grassland, the edges of cultivation and suburban gardens. The black-headed canary is 12–15 cm in length. The adult male has rich brown upper parts and tail, a white hind collar, and mainly white underparts. The head and central breast are solidly black. The adult female is similar, but has a dull grey head, and is dark-streaked on the head and upper parts. It has a rich brown wing bar. The juvenile resembles the female, but is paler and has streaking on the breast and a weaker wing bar.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 27 recordings for this species: 17 CC BY-NC-SA · 10 CC BY-NC-ND. 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
- European SerinSerinus serinusrecording
- Yellow-crowned CanarySerinus flavivertexrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.