Firefinch
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The firefinches form a genus, Lagonosticta, of small seed-eating African birds in the family Estrildidae.
| Firefinches | |
|---|---|
| |
| Red-billed firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Estrildidae |
| Subfamily: | Estrildidae |
| Genus: | Lagonosticta Cabanis, 1851 |
| Type species | |
| Fringilla rubricata[1] M.H.C. Lichtenstein, 1823 | |
| Species | |
|
11, see text | |
Taxonomy
The genus was introduced by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis in 1851.[2] The type species was subsequently designated as the African firefinch.[3] The name combines the Ancient Greek words lagōn "flank" and stiktos "spotted".[4] The genus Lagonosticta is sister to the brown twinspot which is placed in its own genus Clytospiza.[5]
Species
The genus contains 10 species:[6]
| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
_male.jpg) | Red-billed firefinch | Lagonosticta senegala | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia |
 | African firefinch | Lagonosticta rubricata | Senegal east to Ethiopia then south to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania south through Mozambique to the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. |
.jpg) | Jameson's firefinch | Lagonosticta rhodopareia | Angola, Botswana, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe |
| Mali firefinch | Lagonosticta virata | Western Africa | |
,_crop.jpg) | Rock firefinch | Lagonosticta sanguinodorsalis | central Nigeria |
.jpg) | Chad firefinch | Lagonosticta umbrinodorsalis | southwest Chad where it is fairly common and northeast Cameroon |
 | Black-bellied firefinch | Lagonosticta rara | Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo and Uganda |
.jpg) | Bar-breasted firefinch | Lagonosticta rufopicta | Gambia and southern Senegal east to western Uganda and eastern Kenya |
.jpg) | Brown firefinch | Lagonosticta nitidula | Angola, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, southern Tanzania and northern areas of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe |
 | Black-faced firefinch | Lagonosticta larvata | Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo and Uganda |
