Purple grenadier

The purple grenadier (Granatina ianthinogaster) is a common species of estrildid finch found in eastern Africa.

Purple grenadier
Male in Serengeti National Park
Captive female
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Estrildidae
Genus: Granatina
Species:
G. ianthinogaster
Binomial name
Granatina ianthinogaster
Reichenow, 1879

Description

The length averages 13.3 cm (5.25 in). All ages and sexes have a black tail, and adults have a red bill. The male has a cinnamon-colored head and neck with a blue patch surrounding the eye. The rump is purplish blue and the underparts are violet-blue with variable rufous patches. The female is smaller and mostly cinnamon brown with white barring on the underparts and silver-blue eyepatches. Juveniles are like females, but mostly unbarred tawny-brown with a reddish-brown bill.[2]

The song (in Kenya) is described as "a high, thin chit-cheet tsereea-ee-ee tsit-tsit, or cheerer cheet tsee-tsee sur-chit."[2]

The phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al.Arnaiz-Villena, A.; Ruiz V.; González C. (1999). "Los Azulitos Africanos" (PDF). Revista Pájaros. 35.</ref>

Range and habitat

It is found in subtropical and tropical (lowland) dry shrubland in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,500,000 km². The status of the species is evaluated as Least Concern.[3]

Origin

Origin and phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al.[4] Estrildinae may have originated in India and dispersed thereafter (towards Africa and Pacific Ocean habitats).

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Uraeginthus ianthinogaster". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. Zimmerman, Dale A.; Turner, Donald A.; Pearson, David J. (1999). Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania. Princeton University Press. pp. 254–255, 553. ISBN 978-0-691-01022-9.
  3. BirdLife International (2004). "Uraeginthus ianthinogaster". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2004. Retrieved 7 June 2007. .
  4. 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.


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