The Corsican finch (Carduelis corsicana), also known as the Corsican citril finch or Mediterranean citril finch, is a bird in the true finch family, Fringillidae.

Distribution

It is endemic to the Mediterranean islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Elba, Capraia and Gorgona.

Description

It has dark-streaked brown upperparts and brighter yellow underparts than the citril finch does.

Taxonomy

The first formal description of the Corsican finch was by the German zoologist Alexander Koenig in 1899 under the binomial name Citrinella corsicana. It was formerly regarded a subspecies of the citril finch, but it differs in morphology and vocalizations (Förschler & Kalko, 2007) as well as mtDNA sequence (Sangster, 2000, contra Pasquet & Thibault, 1997, Förschler et al. 2009) and they are now considered distinct species (Sangster et al., 2002, Förschler et al. 2009).