Native Canary

A native canary perches on a branch amid the lush greenery of a palm tree. Sunlight filters through the leaves, casting dappled shadows and highlighting the bird's feathers. The saffron finch, Sicalis flaveola, is a tanager from South America that is common in open and semi-open areas in lowlands outside the Amazon Basin. They have a wide distribution in Colombia, northern Venezuela, western Ecuador, western Peru, eastern and southern Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina, and Trinidad and Tobago. It has also been introduced to Hawaii, Panama, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. Although commonly regarded as a canary, it is not related to the Atlantic canary. Formerly, it was placed in the Emberizidae but it is close to the seedeaters.