Critically Endangered
São Tomé grosbeak
Crithagra concolor
The São Tomé grosbeak is the largest member of the canary genus Crithagra, 50% heavier than the next largest canary species.
Appearance
The São Tomé grosbeak is the largest member of the canary genus Crithagra, 50% heavier than the next largest canary species.
Range and habitat
The São Tomé grosbeak, when rediscovered, was thought to inhabit exclusively lowland, old-growth forests in the lower elevations of the south of the island. Observations in the early 2000s indicated that the species was also inhabiting younger forests at higher elevations (between 1,300–1,400 m). Historically, old growth lowland forests were cleared to establish cocoa plantations that, when abandoned, grew into secondary forests, that are less suitable for the grosbeak.
It is endemic to the island of São Tomé.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Habits
Perching birds hold with three toes forward and one back. A named island starling or leafbird in this catalog is a wild population, not a cage type.
In crisis
The current population is estimated at less than 250, and it is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN.
São Tomé grosbeak is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on São Tomé grosbeak, Wikidata item Q27075795. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
