[3][4][5][6][7][8] The male has a largely yellow-green head and underparts with a yellower forehead, face and supercilium.

[10] The female is similar to the male but duller with a greyer head and breast and less yellow underparts.

Linnaeus originally classified the Atlantic canary as a subspecies of the European serin and assigned them to the genus Fringilla.

The Atlantic canary's closest relative is the European serin, and the two can produce on average 25% fertile hybrids if crossed.

It is endemic to the Canary Islands, Azores and Madeira in the region known as Macaronesia in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

[3] It occurs in a wide variety of habitats from pine and laurel forests to sand dunes.

The cup-shaped nest is built 1–6 m above the ground in a tree or bush, most commonly at 3–4 m.[10] It is well-hidden amongst leaves, often at the end of a branch or in a fork.

They are pale blue or blue-green with violet or reddish markings concentrated at the broad end.

[3] Inbreeding depression occurs in S. canaria and is more severe during early development under the stressful conditions associated with hatching asynchrony.