The Ankober Serin is a species of finch

Finch

The true finches are passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. They are predominantly seed-eating songbirds. Most are native to the Northern Hemisphere, but one subfamily is endemic to the Neotropics, one to the Hawaiian Islands, and one subfamily – monotypic at genus level – is found...

 in the Fringillidae family. Recent studies places this bird in Carduelis

Carduelis

The genus Carduelisis a large group of birds in the finch family Fringillidae. It includes the greenfinches, redpolls, goldfinches, linnets, the twite, and the non-African siskins...

, another genus of finches. It is a small brown seedeater, about 12 centimeters or 5 inches in length, gregarious and often encountered in flocks, with brown upperparts and its head and breast distinguished with heavy buffy-colored streaking. Its song consists of a constant, low twitter.

This bird is endemic to Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, inhabiting steep rocky slopes and high cliff-tops; the reported range of the Ankober Serin consists of several disjointed areas in northern Shewa

Shewa

Shewa is a historical region of Ethiopia, formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire...

 and in the northern Amhara Region

Amhara Region

Amhara is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, containing the homeland of the Amhara people. Previously known as Region 3, its capital is Bahir Dar....

. It is threatened by habitat loss.