The Arabian waxbill (''Estrilda rufibarba'') is a highly sociable species of
estrildid finch native to
Yemen and south-western
Saudi Arabia. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 20,000 – 50,000 km
2.
Habitat
The Arabian waxbill is usually found in wetter land of southern
Tihamah
Tihamah or Tihama ( ar, تِهَامَةُ ') refers to the Red Sea coastal plain of the Arabian Peninsula from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Bab el Mandeb.
Etymology
Tihāmat is the Proto-Semitic language's term for 'sea'. Tiamat (or Tehom, in mas ...
foothills and the terraced slopes and
wadis of the western
escarpments in Yemen. It can also be found along the south coast of Yemen east to
Wadi al-Jahr and, in the extensively irrigated intensive agricultural areas of
Wadi Hadramawt between
Shibam and
Tarim, usually with a dense cover of trees and bushes. The altitude of its habitats is approximately 250 to 2,500 m.
[
This species has become closely associated with regularly irrigated agricultural areas (especially cereal cultivation) due to its accessibility to drinking water. Modern irrigation techniques have increased the crops' yield but they also have destroyed some traditional sites through burning and land-use change, and threatening the species that requires dense waterside vegetation for ]communal roosting
Communal roosting is an animal behavior where a group of individuals, typically of the same species, congregate in an area for a few hours based on an external signal and will return to the same site with the reappearance of the signal. Environment ...
.
References
External links
BirdLife International species factsheet
Arabian waxbill
Birds of the Arabian Peninsula
Arabian waxbill
{{Estrildidae-stub