Chirping with Kloof Conservancy – Brimstone Canary

IN this week’s column, we feature a fairly common and chirpy bird in our area, the Brimstone Canary.

Also read: Chirping with Kloof Conservancy – Green Twinspot

Description

The Brimstone Canary is easily distinguished from other canaries by its distinctive large and powerful beak. It is a smallish bird, slightly bigger than a House Sparrow, at 16cm and weighs about 29g. It is predominantly yellow-green in colour with yellow wing bars. The underparts vary slightly in intensity across the distribution region, but they are mostly yellowish with a green tinge on the sides. Males and females are very similar in appearance with the female somewhat duller than the male.

Distribution

In South Africa, this bird is found along the coastal areas, stretching from the Western Cape through to Mpumalanga, but surprisingly, it is absent from most of the Kruger National Park area.

Habitat

This is quite an adaptable species and can be found in a wide variety of habitats, such as forest edges, woodlands and fynbos (in the Western Cape).

Feeding

The Brimstone Canary is primarily a seedeater but will also feed on flying ants when the opportunity arises. It will use its very powerful beak to crack open the seeds of fruit.

Breeding

In our area, the Brimstone Canary will breed during the summer months, usually between October to January. The cup-shaped nest is built entirely by the female and consists of a somewhat untidy stack of grass with the nesting area lined with softer materials. The female will lay between two to four eggs which take approximately 15 days to hatch. The feeding of the chicks is done by the female initially, but after four days, the male also helps.

Predators and threats

This species is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as ‘least concern’, and its numbers do not appear to be under threat at the moment.

Local information

The Brimstone Canary is reasonably common in the Highway area, and you are likely to find it in forested areas or the edges of forests or even in your garden if there is food available. They don’t tend to be very sociable so are most often spotted singly or in pairs. They have often been seen at the Msinsi Grassland in Kloof.

Interesting facts

The Brimstone Canary was previously known as the Bully Canary, presumably because of its very large and powerful beak.

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