Cuckoo Finch
| Cuckoo-finch | |
|---|---|
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| Midmar Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Viduidae |
| Genus: |
Anomalospiza Shelley, 1901 |
| Species: | A. imberbis |
| Binomial name | |
|
Anomalospiza imberbis (Cabanis, 1868) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Crithagra imberbis Cabanis, 1868 |
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Crithagra imberbis Cabanis, 1868
The cuckoo-finch (Anomalospiza imberbis), also known as the parasitic weaver or cuckoo weaver, is a small passerine bird now placed in the family Viduidae with the indigobirds and whydahs. It occurs in grassland in Africa south of the Sahara. The male is mainly yellow and green while the female is buff with dark streaks. The eggs are laid in the nests of other birds.
The species was described in 1868 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis based on a specimen from East Africa, probably from the coast opposite Zanzibar. It was initially placed in the genus Crithagra but later moved to a genus of its own, Anomalospiza. The name of the genus means "anomalous finch" with spiza being a Greek word for finch. The specific name imberbis comes from Latin and means "beardless".
Its closest relatives are thought to be the indigobirds and whydahs of the genus Vidua. These birds are now usually considered to form a family, Viduidae. Previously they were treated as a subfamily, Viduinae, within either the estrildid finch family, Estrildidae, or the weaver family, Ploceidae.
The cuckoo-finch is a small finch-like bird, about 11–13 cm long. It has a short tail, large legs and feet, and a large, deep, conical bill. The adult male has a black bill and a yellow head and underparts. The upperparts are olive-green with black streaks. The yellow areas become increasingly bright prior to the breeding season as the feathers become worn. The adult female is buff with heavy black streaking above and light streaks on the flanks; its face is largely plain buff and the throat is buff-white. It has various chattering calls. Displaying males have a nasal song.
The cuckoo-finch has a scattered distribution across sub-Saharan Africa where it occurs in open or lightly wooded grassland, especially near damp areas.
In West Africa, it occurs in Guinea, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, eastern Nigeria, and north-west Cameroon with vagrant records from Gambia and Mali. Further east it is found in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, southern and eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and locally in the Republic of the Congo. In southern Africa, it occurs in Malawi, Zambia, southern and eastern Angola, north-east Namibia, northern and eastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, eastern South Africa, and Swaziland.
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Wikipedia