Dybowski's Twinspot Euschistospiza dybowskii Scientific name definitions

12 cm; 12–14·6 g. Male has head to neck and breast dark grey, upperparts, including rump and uppertail-coverts, crimson, tail feathers blackish-brown, edged greyish-red, upperwing brownish-black; lower breast to undertail-coverts black, flanks with white spots; iris dark brown to reddish-brown, eyering reddish-pink; bill black; legs blackish. Female is paler below than male, chin to breast paler grey, lower underparts and flanks grey, undertail-coverts sooty grey. Juvenile is dark brownish-grey above, rump and uppertail-coverts reddish-grey, iris dark reddish-brown, eyering pink and narrower than adult's.

SE Senegal, E Guinea-Bissau, S Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, W Ivory Coast, C & E Nigeria, NC Cameroon, Central African Republic, NE DRCongo, S South Sudan and NW Uganda.

Grassy areas in woodland, thickets around base of granite hills, weedy cultivation, and grassy montane plateaux.

Resident.

Small grass seeds and insects, taken on the ground. Feeds in cultivated fields of acha "hungry rice" (Digitaria exilis) at harvest time, and in annual grasses around latrines and rubbish dumps. Forages in pairs and in small groups; joins mixed flocks with Lagonosticta.

Close contact call "kek"; distance call a metallic "tsit", in a series louder and run together in excitement or alarm. Song a series of loud, rich bubbling trills, churrs and whistles, some fluty notes. Female has softer song.

Breeds in Sept in Sierra Leone, Mar in Cameroon, perhaps Sept–Oct in NE DRCon­go (Uele), and Oct in Sudan. Male courts female on ground or on a perch, holds a stem or feather in bill, hops around her with head held upward, belly feathers raised, bobs up and down, sings, sometimes moves head from side to side; on ground, tail is spread and touches ground. Nest a loosely constructed ball of dry grass and plant fibres, lined with feathers, built on ground (then having entrance tube) or to 3 m above ground in fern or shrub (no entrance tube). Clutch usually 4–6 eggs; incubation period 13–14 days; nestling skin purplish-black with sparse grey down, gape with two large white swellings on each side (upper swelling initially blue), each swelling with base light blue and inside mouth black, corner has yellow pad between the white swellings, palate yellow with three black spots and two small mediolateral spots, bill tip blackish, tongue pinkish with two black spots and a yellow tip, inner and lower mouth pink, with black sublingual crescent; nestling period 18–20 days; fledglings fed by both parents, independent in 31 days. Nests in Guinea and Sierra Leone may be parasitized by Cameroon Indigobird (Vidua camerunensis), which mimics song of present species.

Not globally threatened. Uncommon to scarce in much of range; rare in Senegal and rare in Sudan. Locally common in Guinea.