The red-headed finch (''Amadina erythrocephala'') (also known as the paradise finch) is a common species of

estrildid finch 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 ...

found in Africa. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,600,000 km². It is found in

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

, Lesotho,

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. Males have vibrant red heads and chests while the females are duller. The resemblance to the cut-throat finch is unmistakable. The red-headed and cut-throat finch are the only members of the genus ''Amadina''. ''Amadinas'' with their heavy beaks resemble members of the ''

Lonchura ''Lonchura'' is a genus of the estrildid finch family, and includes munias (or minias) and mannikins. They are seedeating birds that are found in South Asia from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka east to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippine ...

'', so they are actually more closely related to the ''

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 ...

s'' such as the Melba finch.

Taxonomy

The red-headed finch was formally described by the Swedish naturalist

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

in 1758 in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Loxia eryocephala'', a misspelling of ''Loxia erythrocephala''. The specific epithet combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''eruthros'' meaning "red" with ''-kephalos'' meaning "headed". Linnaeus based his description on "The Sparrow of Paradise" that had been described and illustrated in 1751 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. Edwards' specimen had been collected in Angola. This species is now placed with the cut-throat finch in the genus '' Amadina'' that was introduced in 1827 by the English naturalist William John Swainson. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

: no subspecies are recognised.

Behaviour

Often seen in small flocks on dry savannahs, the red-headed finch is a ground feeder which feeds companionably with other species and often visits waterholes. It has a distinctive double-noted ''chuck-chuck'' call.Newman, K. Newman's Birds of Southern Africa. . p. 428.

References

*Newman, K. ''Newman's Birds of Southern Africa''. . p. 428.

External links

Species factsheet
- BirdLife International

- eFinch
Species text
- ''The Atlas of Southern African Birds''

- Biodiversity explorer shows a distribution map red-headed finch Birds of Southern Africa red-headed finch red-headed finch {{Estrildidae-stub