Firefinch


The firefinches are a genus of African birds in the family Estrildidae.
The genus Lagonosticta was introduced by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis in 1851. The type species was subsequently designated as the African firefinch. The name combines the Ancient Greek words lagōn "flank" and stiktos "spotted".

Species

The genus contains 11 species:
ImageScientific nameCommon NameDistribution
Black-bellied firefinchLagonosticta raraBenin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo and Uganda.
Bar-breasted firefinchLagonosticta rufopictaGambia and southern Senegal east to western Uganda and eastern Kenya
Brown firefinchLagonosticta nitidulaAngola, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, southern Tanzania and northern areas of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Red-billed firefinchLagonosticta senegalaDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia
Rock firefinchLagonosticta sanguinodorsaliscentral Nigeria
Chad firefinchLagonosticta umbrinodorsalissouthwest Chad where it is fairly common and northeast Cameroon
Mali firefinchLagonosticta virataWestern Africa.
African firefinchLagonosticta rubricataSenegal east to Ethiopia then south to the southern Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania south through Mozambique to the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
Landana firefinchLagonosticta landanaesouthern Gabon and the Republic of Congo, western Democratic Republic of the Congo
Jameson's firefinchLagonosticta rhodopareiaAngola, Botswana, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Black-faced firefinchLagonosticta larvataBenin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.