Cameroon Indigobird Vidua camerunensis Scientific name definitions

10–11 cm; 11–14 g. Male breeding is black with blue to bluish-green gloss, concealed white flank spot; tail brown, wing with inner three secondaries and their coverts glossy black, other secondaries and primaries and upperwing-coverts brown, underwing-coverts light grey (or some coverts black); iris dark brown; bill white; legs light purplish. Non-breeding male, late-hatched first-year male and female have pale brown central crownstripe streaked black, bordered by dark brown stripe, pale face with whitish supercilium, dark stripe from eye back to lighter brown unstreaked nape, indistinct blackish ear-spot; upperparts brown with blackish shaft streaks, rump unstreaked brown, tail dark brown, upperwing brown, buffy wingbars formed by tips of upperwing-coverts; chin and throat whitish, breast to undertail-coverts unstreaked whitish-grey, side of breast and flanks buffy grey, underwing-coverts grey; bill grey or grey-brown, upper mandible darker, legs light purplish to pinkish (not orange). Female is not distinguishable from those of other pale-winged indigobirds in range. Juvenile is more uniform in appearance than adult female, is brownish above, crown nearly uniformly grey-brown, indistinct buffy supercilium, back with indistinct darker grey streaks, rump plain brown, breast buffy grey, belly white, bill black, legs grey.

Guinea-Bissau, S Mali, Guinea, N Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, W & C Cameroon, S Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, NE & W DRCongo (Uele, Equateur, Bandundu), and E Congo (N’gabé).

Wooded or shrubby edges of rivers, roads and grassy cultivated lands, especially fonio (Digitaria exilis) on rocky slopes with thin soil, where annual rainfall exceeds 400 mm, as in upland Fouta Djalon (Guinea and Sierra Leone), and similar habitat (though no fonio) in N Nigeria and Cameroon. Mainly at 800–1200 m in Guinean woodlands; also in wet lowland with more than 2000 mm rainfall in SE Nigeria and where Brown Twinspot present.

Resident. Possibly a seasonal migrant in NE DRCongo (Uele), where flocks not seen in non-breeding season (breeds in late rains).

Small grass seeds, taken from ground. Especially fond of fonio (known also as "hungry rice") when this harvested in Sept–Oct in upland Guinea and Sierra Leone. Flocks together at end of breeding season, sometimes with other members of genus.

Song churring and scratchy, mixed with imitations of songs and calls of hosts. Each male uses repertoire of c. 20 distinct song themes, a third of which are host-mimetic, the others not; slow and fast chatters given in aggressive contexts, interspersed with complex songs in song bouts. Males within a few kilometres of each other match the full set of songs; those farther away have different set of songs. Male mimics songs of one of several estrildid hosts, namely African Firefinch (Lagonosticta rubricata), Black-bellied Firefinch (Lagonosticta rara), Brown Twinspot (Clytospiza monteiri) and Dybowski's Twinspot (Euschistospiza dybowskii), each male copying only one species; mixed song populations occur in some localities, certain males mimicking one species and others another. Vocalizations mimicked include: of African Firefinch, "pit pit pit" alarm call (10–20 notes per second, sometimes slower), also "too-too..." whistles, and slurred "tsee wee wee" whistles; of Black-bellied Firefinch, four or more low, slow whistles, "tew-tew-tew-tew", a low whistled contact "squeer" rising and falling in pitch, and a sharp "chek" alarm call; of Brown Twinspot, "vay, vay" contact call, a short "keeha", a sharp "tek tek tek" alarm, and complex song combining these calls and whistles; of Dybowski's Twinspot, a "zet" alarm, "kek" and "churr" contact calls, and complex songs with varied phrases including canary-like whistled trill, "rrrrrrr", and buzzy whistle, "vweee". In W Africa, several "song races": of 207 males, 108 mimicked Black-bellied Firefinch, 79 African Firefinch, 17 Dybowski's Twinspot, and two mimicked Brown Twinspot; birds of two song races occur together in Sierra Leone and Guinea (where some males mimic African Firefinch songs and others mimic Dybowski's Twinspot songs), in Guinea-Bissau (some mimic African Firefinch, others Black-bellied Firefinch), and in N Cameroon (some imitate African Firefinch, others Black-bellied Firefinch), in SE Nigeria mimics Brown Twinspot, and near type locality in Central African Republic occurs with Black-bellied Firefinch.

Males in breeding plumage and courting in Oct in Guinea-Bissau and (also with mating) in Guinea, and males in breeding plumage courting and mating in Sept and Oct in Sierra Leone and Sept to early Dec in Cameroon. Territorial, spacing call-site equally between males of same and different song races, and males of other species (V. wilsoni, V. raricola). Male sings persistently from conspicuous perch in tree or bush, defends tree and area around singing site, courts visiting females in hovering flight display, copulation at his perch during which he gives mimicry begging calls; after courting, whether successful or not, male flies to grassy place a few metres away, where he gives mimicry songs, calling female, which approaches and forages with him on ground. Brood-parasitic, thought to parasitize Black-bellied and African Firefinches and Brown and Dybowski's Twinspots, evidence for which mostly song mimicry, except for one Black-bellied Firefinch nest in Cameroon containing chick of present species; eggs white, unmarked, 15 x 12 mm, laid one per day, incubation period 11–12 days. One documented hatchling (in Black-bellied Firefinch nest) had skin dark pinkish-grey, down grey on crown, back and thighs, long on crown, gape with pair of small rounded white papillae, one above and one below, base of papillae blue-black on posterior side, gape between papillae mauve-pink, inner lining of gape-flange cherry-red, palate pinkish-white with ring of five black spots (anterior three spots large, posterior two small), tongue pink with two black spots, lower mouth pinkish with black crescent, like mouth of nestling Black-bellied Firefinch; nestling period 17–18 days. Two nestling indigobirds can survive and fledge in same nest.

Not globally threatened. Locally common. In most of its range, occurs with African Firefinch and Black-bellied Firefinch. Has been observed continuously at Tibati, in Cameroon, during many decades.