Streaky-headed Seedeater

The streaky-headed seedeater or streaky-headed canary (Crithagra gularis) is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is an unobtrusive but widespread species in suitable habitats of southern Africa. Its presence in an area is revealed foremost by its callnotes. == Taxonomy == The streaky-headed seedeater 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 streaky-headed seedeater were moved to the resurrected genus Crithagra. There are five recognized subspecies, differing mainly in the colour shade of the upperparts and underparts. C. g. humilis of the southwestern Cape has dusky plumage and indistinctly streaked upperparts. C. g. benguellensis (Reichenow, 1904) — n Namibia, s Angola C. g. endemion (Clancey, 1952) — Lesotho, Eswatini, e South Africa, s Mozambique C. g. gularis (Smith, A, 1836) — n South Africa, sw Botswana, s Zimbabwe C. g. humilis (Bonaparte, 1850) — s South Africa C. g. mendosa (Clancey, 1966) — nw Botswana, Zimbabwe, c Mozambique, s Zambia Some authorities consider the West African seedeater (Crithagra canicapilla) as a subspecies of the streaky-headed seedeater. C. (g.) elgonensis, an isolated…