Red-billed firefinch

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Red-billed firefinch
Male and female of the nominate subspecies, both in The Gambia

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Estrildidae
Genus: Lagonosticta
Species:
L. senegala
Binomial name
Lagonosticta senegala
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms

Fringilla senegala Linnaeus, 1766

The red-billed firefinch or Senegal firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala) is a small seed-eating bird in the family Estrildidae. This is a resident breeding bird in most of Sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated global extent of occurrence of 10,000,000 km2. It was introduced to Egypt, but the population there has become extinct. It was also introduced to southern Algeria where it is currently expanding northward. [2]

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist

Lagonosticta that was introduced by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis in 1851.[6]

There are six subspecies:[7]

  • L. s. senegala (Linnaeus, 1766) – Nominate subspecies – Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia to west and central Nigeria
  • L. s. rhodopsis (Heuglin, 1863) – Sahel red-billed firefinch or Adamawa red-billed firefinch[8] – east Nigeria, north and central Cameroon and south Chad to Sudan, west Eritrea and west Ethiopia
  • L. s. brunneiceps Sharpe, 1890 – Abyssinian red-billed firefinch[9] – central Ethiopia and southeast Sudan
  • L. s. somaliensis Salvadori, 1894 – Lake Abaya red-billed firefinch or Somali red-billed firefinch[10] – southeast Ethiopia and south Somalia
  • L. s. ruberrima Reichenow, 1903 – Uganda red-billed firefinch[11] – Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and west Kenya to northeast Angola, northeast Zambia and north Malawi
  • L. s. rendalli Hartert, 1898 – Southern red-billed firefinch[12] – south Angola to Mozambique south to South Africa

Description

The red-billed firefinch is 10 cm (3.9 in) in length. The adult male has entirely scarlet plumage apart from brown wings. The bill is pink, and there is a yellow eye-ring. Females have uniformly brown upperparts and buff underparts. There is a small red patch in front of both eyes, with the bill also being pink.

Range and habitat

This widespread and abundant species is often found around human habitation, often with other species such as the red-cheeked cordon-bleu. Its soft queet-queet call is a familiar African sound. The song is a rising chick-pea-pea-pea.

The red-billed firefinch is a small

gregarious bird which feeds mainly on grain and other seeds. It frequents open grassland and cultivation. The nest is a large domed grass structure with a side entrance, built low in a bush, wall or thatch into which three to six white eggs are laid. The nest of this species is parasitised by the village indigobird
.

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22719440A132129091.en
    . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ MaghrebOrnitho. 2017. Expansion of Red-billed Firefinch in Algeria. Consulted: 26 January 2019.
  3. ^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés (in French and Latin). Vol. 3. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. pp. 208–210, Plate 10 fig 2. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.
  4. ^
    hdl:2246/678
    .
  5. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1766). Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (12th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 320.
  6. ^ Cabanis, Jean; Heine, Ferdinand (1860). Museum Heineanum : Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine, auf Gut St. Burchard vor Halberstadt (in German and Latin). Vol. 1. Halberstadt: R. Frantz. p. 171.
  7. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Waxbills, parrotfinches, munias, whydahs, Olive Warbler, accentors, pipits". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  8. ^ "Lagonosticta senegala rhodopsis (Sahel red-billed firefinch/Adamawa red-billed firefinch) - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  9. ^ "Lagonosticta senegala brunneiceps (Abyssinian red-billed firefinch) - Zootierliste". zootierliste.de/en. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  10. ^ "Lagonosticta senegala somaliensis (Lake Abaya red-billed firefinch/Somali red-billed firefinch) - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  11. ^ "Lagonosticta senegala ruberrima (Uganda red-billed firefinch) - Zootierliste". zootierliste.de/en. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  12. ^ "Lagonosticta senegala rendalli (Southern red-billed firefinch) - Zootierliste". zootierliste.de/en. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  • Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley,
    ISBN 1-873403-32-1

External links
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