Orange-breasted waxbill

The orange-breasted waxbill (Amandava subflava) or zebra waxbill,[2] is a small (approximately 9 cm long) sparrow-like bird with a reddish iris, orange breast, red bill and dark olive-green plumage. The male has a red rump, dark bars on the whitish flank and a scarlet eyebrow stripe. The female is duller and smaller than male; it also lacks the male's red eyebrow.

Orange-breasted waxbill
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Estrildidae
Genus: Amandava
Species:
A. subflava
Binomial name
Amandava subflava
(Vieillot, 1819)
Synonyms[2]

Sporaeginthus subflavus

The orange-breasted waxbill is found in grassland and savannahs south of the Sahara in Africa. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 10,000,000 km2. This species is also introduced to other countries, e.g., Kuwait. Its diet consists mainly of seeds, insects and shoots. The female usually lays between four and six eggs in an oval-shaped nest made from grass. These nests are often the old nests of red-collared widowbirds.

Widespread and common throughout its large range, the orange-breasted waxbill is evaluated to be of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.[1] It is listed on Appendix III of CITES in Ghana.

Origin

Origin and phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al.[3] Estrildinae may have originated in India and dispersed thereafter (towards Africa and Pacific Ocean habitats).

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Amandava subflava". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. "Amandava subflava". Avibase.
  3. Arnaiz-Villena, A; Ruiz-del-Valle V; Gomez-Prieto P; Reguera R; Parga-Lozano C; Serrano-Vela I (2009). "Estrildinae Finches (Aves, Passeriformes) from Africa, South Asia and Australia: a Molecular Phylogeographic Study" (PDF). The Open Ornithology Journal. 2: 29–36. doi:10.2174/1874453200902010029. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-18.
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