The trumpeter finch was formerly described in 1823 by the German naturalist Hinrich Lichtenstein under the binomial name Fringilla githaginea based on a specimen collected in Upper Egypt.

It is possibly a regular migrant in southern Europe away from Spain with records of flocks from Italy and Malta.

The summer male has a red bill, grey head and neck, and pale brown upper parts.

[9] The trumpeter finch breeds from the Canary Islands eastwards across North Africa, as far south as Mauritania, Mali and Chad, with isolated populations in Sudan and Ethiopia and Djibouti.

They can also be found in vast open steppe areas where there are dry desolate hills with sparse low scrubby vegetation, edges of fields, on mountain slopes, in stony plains where there are no trees, cliffs, ravines, gorges and wadis.

The European breeding population is found in habitats where there is no tree cover but there is sparse scrub less than a metre in height, while the birds in the Canary Islands nest on sandy plains with halophytic and xerophytic scrub, as well as in more typical habitats.

They are mainly vegetarian and their diet consists of small seeds, shoots and buds of grasses and low ground-loving plants.

In then Canary Islands they form mixed flocks with common linnets and Spanish sparrows.