Blue-capped Cordonbleu Uraeginthus cyanocephalus Scientific name definitions

13–13·5 cm; 8·5–10·8 g. Male has head to upper breast and flanks ­azure-blue, mantle, back and upperwing tawny-brown, primary P9 broad near tip, rump and uppertail-coverts blue, long graduated tail blue (central feathers narrow at tip); centre of lower breast, belly and undertail-coverts pale greyish to buffy-fawn, rearmost belly whitish; iris red to brown, eyering pale grey-blue; bill pinkish to crimson, often blackish at tip; legs dull flesh to orange- or pinkish-flesh. Female is paler than male, has crown bluish-grey to brownish, lower forehead and face (to above eye) to upper breast and flanks blue, rest of underparts light buffish-brown, centre of belly to vent white. Juvenile is similar to female, with face pale blue (variable), breast and flanks pale blue, juvenile male slightly bluer than juvenile female, both with bill black.

SE South Sudan (Kapoeta), S Ethiopia, E Uganda (Moroto) (1 Skeen, R. Q. (2014). A review of birds in Uganda: records updating the Uganda Atlas and notes on species unrecorded since 1980. Scopus 33:53–63. Close ), Kenya, S Somalia and N & C Tanzania.

Arid and semi-arid acacia savanna with thickets, thornbush scrub (Acacia, Commiphora, Chrysopogon); in Kenya mainly in areas with annual rainfall 250–1000 mm. Lowlands to 1300 m.

Resident.

Small seeds of annual grasses; also insects, mainly termites (Isoptera). Feeds on ground; takes termites by pecking through earth-covered tunnels on ground and stems of trees. Forages in pairs and small groups.

Contact call a thin "tseee", harsher than that of U. angolensis; alarm a sharp "tchek", singly or in short series, or repeated rapidly (8–10 notes per second) in dry rattle of rising notes; also a more rapid chatter (12 notes per second), each note rising and falling; nest call a high-pitched "chee-chee-chee". Song a series of short and long whistles (sometimes with overtones) and jumbled notes, pitch of early notes usually low and later ones high, with long rising slurred note near end, "teu, skukrr! tsee-ee-wee-see-see, skurr, teh-teh, sweeeeee"; individual male gives variations on a theme, and songs vary among males. Female song short, often ends with dry "tseee", also a trill and a series of whistles. Whistles longer (to 0·3-0·8 seconds), stronger and purer in tone, less lispy than those of congeners.

Season May–Jun in Somalia, during rains and into early dry season in Kenya, and Nov–Jun in Tanzania. Courting male faces female, raises head, holding tip of feather in bill, bill and feather pointing upwards, jerks head up and down and, with plumage sleeked, perches near female, turns tail and head towards her, and bounces up and down; courtship behaviour much as for U. angolensis. Nest a dense ball of fine grasses, entrance hole low on side, lined with feathers or soft flowering heads of grasses and fine stems, placed in thorny tree or acacia, or sometimes on telegraph pole, often near active nest of wasps (Hymenoptera); will take over old nest of Ploceus weaver or of buffalo-weaver (Bubalornis). Clutch 4–6 eggs, incubation period 13–14 days; hatchling has pink skin with three broad black stripes on throat, long, dense pale buff to grey down, mouth has small blackish oval swelling above gape (swelling bordered bluish-white at corner of mouth), gape with greyish-white band, and a smaller black swelling on outer edge of lower bill (basal and distal edges whitish), whitish palate grading to sky-blue to violet at rear, whitish area with three black spots, inner bill tip blackish, inner buccal cavity pink, tongue pink with black ring and bluish-white tip, lower mouth lining pale pink with black crescent near bill tip (little change with nestling age); nestling period 17–19 days; fledged young begin to feed themselves after 7 days, and independent by 14 days. In Kenya, song mimicry suggests possible parasitism by Long-tailed Paradise-whydah (Vidua paradisaea), and in Sudan-Kenya border region distribution suggests that present species is a host of Straw-tailed Whydah (Vidua fischeri); in captivity, breeding adults foster-rear Village Indigobird (Vidua chalybeata), Lagonosticta senegala and Amandava subflava.

Not globally threatened. Locally fairly common; nowhere numerous. Fairly widespread in Kenya and Tanzania; more localized in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.