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Black-bellied Firefinch Lagonosticta rara Scientific name definitions

Robert B. Payne
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated June 19, 2013

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

10–11 cm; 10 g. Male nominate race has head and upperparts to uppertail-coverts red, red fringes to lesser and median upperwing-coverts, flight-feathers brown, tail black with some red near base; breast and flanks red, ­centre of lower breast to belly and undertail-­coverts black; iris dark brown or grey, eyering pink; bill black, large purplish-pink patch on side at base of lower mandible; legs dark grey. Female has crown brownish-grey, mantle, back and wing-coverts greyish-brown with red wash, rump and upper­­tail-coverts red; lores red, throat grey, breast and flanks buffy to greyish-pink, centre of lower belly to undertail-coverts dark grey; eyering grey. Juvenile is similar to female, but lores grey, bill black. Race forbesi is brighter than nominate, male body bright crimson-red, female deeper pinkish-red.

Systematics History

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Recent phylogenetic analysis (1) indicated that this species may be sister to L. larvata; further study needed. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies

SUBSPECIES

Lagonosticta rara forbesi Scientific name definitions

Lagonosticta rara forbesi
L. r. forbesi +1

Distribution

SE Senegal, SW Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and N Sierra Leone E to Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
SUBSPECIES

Lagonosticta rara rara Scientific name definitions

Lagonosticta rara rara
L. r. rara +1

Distribution

Cameroon E to South Sudan, NE DRCongo, Uganda and extreme W Kenya.

Distribution

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Habitat

Grassy N guinean savanna, base of rocks with water seepage, grass and thickets, common around fields of Digitaria exilis in Fouta Djalon (Guinea). In Nigeria and Cameroon found in coastal thicket, grassy savanna farmland and edge of gallery forest, grass around weedy yam farms and bush; in E Africa in tall, moist grassland and overgrown cultivation. In Nigeria (as far E as Serti) and Cameroon (E from Banyo), reportedly absent in montane forest and grassland on Obudu and Mambilla Plateaux.

Movement

Resident.

Diet and Foraging

Small grass seeds; small ants (Formicidae) and termites (Isoptera). Feeds on the ground. Forages in pairs and in small groups, often together with other members of genus.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Contact call a loud nasal "keeyh" or "mew", sometimes in series and calls then increasing in loudness and becoming loud "squeer"; alarm call a sharp "chek", singly or repeated at 8 per second (but not run together), another call a soft "chet". Song a series of whistles, "tew-tew-tew...", low in pitch (2·2 kHz), plaintive and musical, on one pitch, each note (also intervals between notes) 0·2-0·3 seconds, some notes buzzy in tone; other songs include one or more flat whistles at lower pitch (1·8 kHz) with notes and intervals 0·35 seconds, also a series of descending whistles with pitch higher (3·8-3·2 kHz) or lower (2·2-1·8 kHz), the low whistles in range of race forbesi (not recorded for nominate).

Breeding

Recorded in Oct–Nov in Mali, May–Sept in Ghana, Jul–Nov in Nigeria, Oct in Cameroon and Sept–Nov in DRCongo. Male displays on ground, feather or stem in bill, hops around female, head tilted upwards, tail spread and dragging. Nest a loosely constructed ball with outer layer of loosely thatched grass, leaves, stems and grass-heads, inner layer of rootlets and fine grass fibres, built near ground in clump of grass, or in shrub or low tree or in thatch of building. Clutch 3–4 eggs; incubation period 13–14 days; hatchling (race forbesi) skin black on above and reddish-black below, light grey down on head and back, gape has two small pale blue papillae, one above and one below corner of mouth, each with basal blue-black ring, corner of gape a ruby-red expanded flange between the blue papillae and extended to inner side of mouth, palate whitish with three black spots and two behind them (ring of five spots), upper mandible has black bar near tip, inner mouth pink, tongue pink with two black spots joined by a band below, tongue tip pale blue, lower mouth pale with black crescent (in side or frontal view, closed mouth has blue papillae and red gape); nestling nominate race has skin pinkish-grey, down light grey, gape papillae white with no trace of blue, gape pink to light red at base of papillae, in corners and into side of mouth; nestling period 18–20 days. On evidence of song mimicry, species is parasitized in Guinea, Ghana and Cameroon by Cameroon Indigobird (Vidua camerunensis); in Cameroon, indigobird young mimic mouth colours and pattern of host's young.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Fairly common in much of range; rare in Senegal and N Liberia, and rather uncommon in E of range.
Distribution of the Black-bellied Firefinch - Range Map
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Distribution of the Black-bellied Firefinch

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Payne, R. B. (2020). Black-bellied Firefinch (Lagonosticta rara), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blbfir1.01
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