Family Waxbills (Estrildidae)
Least Concern
Grey-headed Nigrita (Nigrita canicapillus)
Taxonomy
French: Nigrette à calotte grise German: Graunackenschwärzling Spanish: Negrita canosa
Other common names:
Grey-headed Negrofinch
Taxonomy:
Æthiops canicapillus
Strickland
, 1841,Bioko
.
Subspecies and Distribution
N. c. emiliae
Sharpe, 1869 – Western Nigrita – Guinea and Sierra Leone E to Togo.
N. c. canicapillus
(Strickland, 1841) – Grey-headed Nigrita – S Benin, S Nigeria and W & S Cameroon S, including Bioko, to Gabon and Congo, E to N & C DRCongo.
N. c. schistaceus
Sharpe, 1891 – extreme S South Sudan, E DRCongo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, W Kenya and NW Tanzania.
N. c. angolensis
Bannerman, 1921 – NW Angola and S DRCongo.
N. c. diabolicus
(Reichenow & Neumann, 1895) – montane C Kenya S to N Tanzania (Crater Highlands, Mt Kilimanjaro).
N. c. candidus
Moreau, 1942 – Kungwe Nigrita – Mt Kungwe, in W Tanzania.
Descriptive notes
13–14 cm; 17–21 g. Nominate race has forehead and side of head black, bordered white above, crown to back grey, rump and uppertail-coverts pale grey, tail black;... read more
Voice
Clear plaintive 3-note whistle, "hooeee, hoooeeee, hoo", sometimes introduced with a... read more
Habitat
Forest edge, clearings, roads and streams in primary guinean forest, gallery forest, also palm,... read more
Food and feeding
Small insects, including ants (Formicidae), termites (Isoptera) and insect larvae; also fruits, seeds, occasionally nectar. Nestlings fed... read more
Breeding
Nest-building in Feb, Mar and Jul–Oct in Liberia; season mainly Sept–Mar in Ivory Coast, and Dec–Feb in Ghana; nest-... read more
Movements
Resident.
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. Common and widespread in most of range. Densities of 5–9 pairs/km2 in secondary forest and 3–5 pairs/km2 in primary forest in Liberia; 5... read more
Races emiliae and candidus suggested in HBW as possibly representing two separate species: emiliae most notably possesses greatly reduced wing spots (2), but otherwise appears to show only two minor differences, a smaller size (allow 1) and reduced (but not absent, contra HBW) white on forehead to nape side (1), with song not much differentiated#R, while candidus has strong white crown to nape and slightly whiter rump (3) but otherwise shows only slightly reduced wing spots (1); thus vocal evidence desirable. Nominate race intergrades with schistaceus in NE DRCongo. Proposed race sparsimguttatus, described from extreme NW Tanzania (Bukoba, on W L Victoria), treated as synonym of schistaceus. Six subspecies recognized.