The green-winged pytilia (''Pytilia melba'') is a small colourful seed-eating bird in the family

Estrildidae Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They comprise species commonly known as munias, mannikins, firefinches, parrotfinches and waxbills. Despite the word "fi ...

. It is widespread throughout

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

, though it is more rarely seen in central, far southern and coastal western parts of the continent.

Taxonomy

The green-winged pytilia was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in the tenth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Fringilla melba''. No explanation was provided for the specific epithet ''melba'' but it could possibly be from a supposed Chinese word or place. Linnaeus based his description on "The Green Gold-Finch" that had been described and illustrated in 1750 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. Edwards was uncertain of the origin of his specimen and Linnaeus mistakenly specified the

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

as China. The specimen was subsequently assumed to be from Angola, but this was restricted to

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

in Angola by

Phillip Clancey Phillip Alexander Clancey (26 September 1917 – 18 July 2001) was a leading authority on the ornithology of South Africa. Background and education Phillip Clancey was born, brought up and educated in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at the Gl ...

in 1962. The green-winged pytilia is now placed in the genus ''

Pytilia Pytilia is a genus of small brightly coloured seed-eating birds in the family Estrildidae. They are distributed across Africa. Taxonomy The genus ''Pytilia'' was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William John Swainson for the red-win ...

'' that was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist

William John Swainson William John Swainson FLS, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swainson was born in Dover Place, St Mary Newington, London, the eldest son of ...

for the

red-winged pytilia The red-winged pytilia (''Pytilia phoenicoptera'') is a common species of estrildid finch found in Africa. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 370,000 km2. It is found at Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republi ...

. Eight

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: * ''P. m. citerior'' Strickland, 1853 – Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia to south Sudan * ''P. m. jessei'' Shelley, 1903 – northeast Sudan to northwest Somalia * ''P. m. soudanensis'' ( Sharpe, 1890) – southeast Sudan, south Ethiopia, central, south Somalia, northeast Uganda and north, east Kenya * ''P. m. percivali'' Van Someren, 1919 – central Kenya to north Tanzania * ''P. m. belli'' Ogilvie-Grant, 1907 – east DR Congo and west Uganda to west Tanzania * ''P. m. grotei''

Reichenow Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and herpetologist. Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum of Berlin from 1874 to 1921. He was ...

, 1919 – east Tanzania, north Mozambique and east Malawi * ''P. m. hygrophila'' Irwin &

Benson Benson may refer to: Animals *Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain Places Geography Canada *Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality *Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet United Kingdom * Benson, Oxfordshire ...

, 1967 – north Zambia and north Malawi * ''P. m. melba'' (Linnaeus, 1758) – south Congo and Angola to southwest Tanzania and south to central Namibia, north South Africa and south Mozambique

Gallery

Image:Green-winged Pytilia SMTC.jpg, Male,

San Diego Zoo The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...

Image:Green-winged Pytilia, Serengeti.jpg, Male,

Serengeti The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game reserves. The Serengeti ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

References

External links

Species text in ''The Atlas of Southern African Birds''Green-winged Pytilia (Melba Finch) Species Profile
green-winged pytilia Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa green-winged pytilia green-winged pytilia {{Estrildidae-stub