Yemen Linnet Linaria yemenensis Scientific name definitions

The Yemen Linnet is a restricted-range species, confined to the South-west Arabian Mountains Endemic Bird Area, where it is common to locally common, despite being a popular cagebird, although the species is not trapped for commercial purposes. It was traditionally considered to form a superspecies with the widespread Eurasian Linnet (Linaria cannabina) and the northeast African endemic Warsangli Linnet (L. johannis). Like the Yemen Serin (Crithagra menachensis), Yemen Linnet was described from collections made around Manakha, in Yemen. This species is dependent on highland areas, mainly at 1,800–3,000 m, where it is especially numerous in juniper (Juniperus) woodland, as well as around cultivated areas with trees and bushes. It forages on the ground, but also directly on plants, like other closely related finches, and sometimes forms sizeable flocks in the non-breeding season, roosting communally and consorting to some extent with both Yemen Serin and Olive-rumped Serin (Crithagra rothschildi). The population has been provisionally estimated at 200,000 pairs, distributed more or less equally between its two range states, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.