Green-winged Pytilia Pytilia melba Scientific name definitions
Text last updated February 23, 2013
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Species names in all available languages
Language | Common name |
---|---|
Afrikaans | Gewone Melba |
Catalan | bec de coral melba |
Czech | astrild pestrý |
Dutch | Melba-astrild |
English | Green-winged Pytilia |
English (United States) | Green-winged Pytilia |
French | Beaumarquet melba |
French (France) | Beaumarquet melba |
German | Buntastrild |
Icelandic | Klasafinka |
Japanese | ニシキスズメ |
Norwegian | grønnvingeastrild |
Polish | melba pstra |
Portuguese (Angola) | Maracachão-d'asa-verde |
Russian | Пёстрый астрильд |
Serbian | Šarena astrilda |
Slovak | pytília pestrá |
Spanish | Estrilda Melba |
Spanish (Spain) | Estrilda melba |
Swedish | melbaastrild |
Turkish | Yeşil Kanatlı Pitilya |
Ukrainian | Мельба строката |
Pytilia melba (Linnaeus, 1758)
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Field Identification
12–14 cm; 12·8-18·4 g. Male nominate race has forehead, cheek, chin and throat red, lores and rest of head grey; upperparts and upperwing yellowish-green, rump and uppertail-coverts red; central pair of rectrices red, other tail feathers dark brown with red outer web; yellowish-green band below throat; some white spots on this band, lower down giving way to bars separated by dark grey, the white progressively dominating towards lower central belly and undertail-coverts; iris red, eyering grey; bill red, sometimes dusky on culmen; legs pinkish-flesh to yellow-brown or grey. Female resembles male, but head all grey (no red), lacks greenish band below throat, barring less distinct, bill red with dusky on culmen and often on tip of lower mandible. Juvenile is like female, but paler, lacks barring, vent and undertail-coverts buff, bill black, iris dark brown. Race grotei is darker than nominate, upperparts tinged more golden, red of throat extends onto much of central breast, some males with trace of red on scapulars and upperwing-coverts; <em>hygrophila</em> is darker, underparts more heavily barred blackish; <em>belli</em> has chin to throat and centre of breast red, upper breast bright yellow, some males with trace of red on scapulars and upperwing-coverts; percivali is paler than nominate, lightly barred; soudanensis has lores to eye red (not grey), red extending onto throat, face behind eye grey, yellowish breastband, lightly barred below; <em>jessei</em> is like previous, but lores grey, forehead and chin to throat paler orange-red, upperparts paler; citerior has red extending to lores and behind eye, upperparts normally paler than in nominate, breast much more golden-yellow, and dark bars on underparts paler and thus less contrasting (dark in S part of range).
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.
Has been suggested that red-lored citerior and grey-lored percivali represent two different species, but red-lored and grey-lored males intergrade across E Africa, and many intermediates occur. Race soudanensis intergrades with citerior in South Sudan, with jessei in Djibouti and with grotei in NE Tanzania. Proposed race clanceyi (described from Bahr el Ghazal, in South Sudan) treated as synonym of citerior; damarensis (from Windhoek, in W Namibia) and thamnophila (from Big Bend, on R Great Usutu, in E Swaziland) synonymized with nominate. A population in Djibouti with much yellow in plumage named as race flavicaudata (but no museum specimen), and apparently identical birds occur in N South Africa (Northern Cape Province), both possibly variants or additional races; a yellowish bird from Northern Cape appears to be a leucistic individual of nominate race, having mitochondrial sequence identical to that of others of this species in the region; further study required. Eight subspecies recognized.Subspecies
Pytilia melba citerior Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba citerior Strickland, 1853
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
- citerior
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Pytilia melba jessei Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba jessei Shelley, 1903
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
- jessei
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Pytilia melba soudanensis Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba soudanensis (Sharpe, 1890)
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
- soudanensis
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Pytilia melba flavicaudata Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba flavicaudata Welch & Welch, 1988
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
- flavicaudata / flavicaudatus
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Pytilia melba grotei Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba grotei Reichenow, 1919
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
- grotei
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Pytilia melba belli Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba belli Ogilvie-Grant, 1907
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
- belli
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Pytilia melba percivali Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba percivali Van Someren, 1919
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
- percivali
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Pytilia melba melba Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba melba (Linnaeus, 1758)
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Pytilia melba hygrophila Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Pytilia melba hygrophila Irwin & Benson, 1967
Definitions
- PYTILIA
- melba
- hygrophila
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
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
Movement
Diet and Foraging
Small grass seeds, also termites (Isoptera) and pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones). In N South Africa exploits the grasses Panicum maximum, Urochloa mosambicensis, Rhynchelytrum repens, Sporobolus; in Zambia grasses Panicum, Echinochloa colonum, Urochloa, Setaria, also seeds of Amaranthus; visits flowering acacia trees. Rears young on termites. Feeds on ground . Locates termites by digging with bill through the encrusted tunnels on ground and base of trees, and takes termites on the wing. Forages in pairs and in small flocks. Often inconspicuous.
Sounds and Vocal Behavior
Breeding
Conservation Status
Not globally threatened. Uncommon to locally common. Mostly uncommon in NW of range (W of Nigeria), and uncommon in extreme NE; scarce to uncommon and local in much of E range from Uganda and Kenya S to Tanzania; commoner in S parts of range, e.g. Angola and South Africa, but uncommon in Namibia. Estimated population in S Mozambique (Sul do Save) 200,000 individuals. Densities in mixed Acacia-Dichrostachys thornbush savanna in N South Africa 0·25-1·25 breeding pairs/ha (i.e. 1 pair/0·8-4 ha), or 0·39-0·79 pairs/ha (1 pair/1·3-2·6 ha); densities of 12, 32, 69 and 97 birds/km2 in Acacia savannas in Swaziland. Popular cagebird, large numbers of which are captured and exported; mortality during shipment high. During 1992–1993 drought in S, this species declined dramatically in SE Botswana (reported that bird-export companies failed to take their "usually sustainable quotas").