Animalia Life

Lagonosticta rhodopareia
SUBFAMILY
Estrildinae
TAXONOMY
Estrelda rhodopareia Heuglin, 1868.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Pink-backed firefinch; French: Amarante de Jameson; German: Rosenamarant; Spanish: Pinzуn Candela de Jameson.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
3.9–4.3 in (10–11 cm). Sexually dimorphic; males bright red on head, breast, and underparts; females light brown except for bright red lores. Juveniles similar to females but lack red lores.
DISTRIBUTION
Central Ethiopia south to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Discontinuous populations in western Angola and in southwestern Chad.
HABITAT
Occurs in areas containing both low cover and ample grass including grassland, thicket, forest edges, bracken-briar, and thorn scrub.
BEHAVIOR
Found in pairs or small groups. The call is a “ti-ti-ti-ti-ti” or a softer “tsit, tsit.” The song is a melodious “we-we-we-we-we” or “weet-weet-weet-weet” with a whistling “feeeee” repeated several times.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Feeds on or near the ground on seeds of grasses and other plants, and occasionally on small invertebrates.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
The breeding period is at the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry season. The round nest is built by the male in small shrubs and made of grasses, rootlets, and other plant fibers. This species is the breeding host of the purple indigobird (Vidua purpurascens).
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
This species has occasionally been kept in aviculture, but never in great numbers.

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