Mali Firefinch is rarely recorded in Senegal; a 2011 survey in the southeast documented one male. The paper also records the bill and eye-ring features used to identify it.
The male captured in April 2011 had deep red underparts. Identification also used its slender bill, bluish lower mandible, dark upper mandible with a nearly black tip, pink orbital ring, and black undertail-coverts.
On 26 April 2011, one male was caught in a mist net in shrubby secondary forest. This is a capture-site record, not a comparison of habitat preference.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.