Double-barred Finch Stizoptera bichenovii Scientific name definitions

10–11 cm; 7–12 g. Nominate race has forehead black, crown to back brown with indistinct blackish bars, rump and uppertail-coverts white, tail black; upperwing black, whitish spots and bars on wing-coverts and inner flight-feathers; face and throat white, ringed with thin black band ; breast greyish-white with fine grey barring at side, thin black band across lower breast; belly and flanks creamy white, undertail-coverts black; iris dark brown, eyering brown; bill pale bluish-grey; legs grey. Sexes alike. Juvenile is similar in pattern to adult, but forehead brown, upper­parts brownish-buff, wings brown with whitish spots and bars, two bars around face and across breast brownish, bill blackish. Race annulosa differs from nominate in having lower back, rump and uppertail-coverts black.

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Separated in a monotypic genus, Stizoptera. Races intergrade in region S of Gulf of Carpentaria, from where most museum specimens are either white-rumped or black-rumped; in breeding experiments with captives, mixed pairs of black-rumped race annulosa and white-rumped nominate produced white-rumped offspring, suggesting a single genetic locus with white dominant over black. Species name was emended to “bichenoii” (1 Dickinson, E. C., and L. Christidis, Editors (2014). The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Fourth Edition. Volume 2. Aves Press, Eastbourne, UK. Close ) but this emendation is best considered unjustified (2 Schodde, R. and Longmore, W. (2015). The correct spelling of the specific name of the Double-barred Finch, Taeniopygia bichenovii (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827) (Passeriformes: Estrildidae). Zootaxa 3955(2): 299–300. Close ). Two subspecies recognized.

• Double-barred x Zebra Finch (hybrid) Stizoptera bichenovii x Taeniopygia guttata

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.

Grassy woodland and scrubland, open woodland and forest edge, vegetation along watercourses, cane fields, roadsides, wasteland, parks and gardens.

Resident, present throughout year in many areas. Some seasonality of movement N along E Australia coast after breeding; considered a dry-season visitor in NW Queensland, perhaps dispersing or moving locally in response to dry seasons/rainfall in N Australia.

Seeds of grasses and other herbs; occasionally insects and their larvae, mainly in breeding season. Takes seeds from ground, and sometimes jumps up to pull seeds from stem heads. Forages singly, in pairs and in small flocks of up to c. 12–14 individuals; sometimes in larger flocks of 50 or more. Sometimes in mixed flocks, often with other finches, mainly Stagonopleura guttata, but also Neochmia temporalis, Aidemosyne modesta, and others.

Close contact call a high-pitched "tat, tat"; distance contact call a longer "tiaat tiaat" like sound made by toy trumpet, or plaintive "twoooo-twoooo", female lower-pitched; has high-pitched nest call. Song a series of buzzy contact calls and trills.

Breeds during second half of wet season in N Australia; in all months in Queensland, mainly in Jul–Nov/Dec in New South Wales. Male only occasionally performs a stem display; in courtship male hops towards female, feathers of neck, cheeks, breast, flanks and belly fluffed, switches body from side to side, and sings. Nest a ball with side entrance, usually no tunnel (occasionally a short tunnel of less than 5 cm), made from grass, lined with soft grasses or feathers, often placed in bush, sometimes in small tree, palm, or canegrass, or in hole in tree or under roof of shed, and often sited near nest of paper wasps (Polistes humilis); sometimes takes over old nests, repairing and relining them. Clutch 3–6 eggs; incubation period 11–12 days; hatchling skin pale pink, turning dark pinkish-grey and black by day 6, short whitish or grey down on head, back, femur and wings, has gape white, slightly swollen, with black medial surface on each flat flange, palate pinkish-white with three laterally elongated black spots and two small black arcs in mediolateral position (arcs open towards rear), two black spots on tongue and a black spot below, black sublingual crescent; nestling period 19 days; young independent 21 days after fledging.

Not globally threatened. Common to locally common. Recorded densities of 0·24-0·6 birds/ha in Northern Territory (Howards Peninsula) and 0·49-2·55 birds/ha in Queensland (near Tallegalla); in New South Wales, 0·08 birds/ha near Armidale and 0·2 birds/ha at Hawkesbury R; 0·07-0·67 birds/ha near Canberra. During 20th century expanded its range E in SE Australia, but in later decades declines noted in several E coastal regions of that state; since early 1970s evidence also of range expansion W & SW in New South Wales. In Victoria, recorded only from 1980, with few published records at a few sites in N & NE. Commonly kept as a cagebird.