The violet-eared waxbill or common grenadier (''Granatina granatina'') is a common species of estrildid finch found in drier land of Southern Africa.

Taxonomy

The violet-eared waxbill was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth 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 granatina''. Linnaeus took the specific epithet from the earlier description by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson who in 1760 had used the French name ''Le Grenadin'' and the Latin ''Granatinus'', meaning "grenadier" in English. Linnaeus mistakenly specified the locality as Brazil. This was an error originally introduced by the English naturalist George Edwards in 1743 who had believed that his specimen had come from Brazil. The locality was amended to Angola by

William Lutley Sclater William Lutley Sclater (23 September 1863 – 4 July 1944) was a British zoologist and museum director. He was the son of Philip Lutley Sclater and was named after his paternal grandfather, also William Lutley Sclater. Life William's mother, J ...

in 1930 and restricted to Huíla Province in Angola by Phillip Clancey in 1959. The violet-eared waxbill is now placed in the genus '' Granatina '' that was introduced in 1890 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe. The species is treated as monotypic: no

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.

Habitat

It is found in subtropical/ tropical (lowland) dry shrubland and savanna habitats in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The status of the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

References

BirdLife Species Factsheet

External links

* Violet-eared waxbill
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds

violet-eared waxbill The violet-eared waxbill or common grenadier (''Granatina granatina'') is a common species of estrildid finch found in drier land of Southern Africa. Taxonomy The violet-eared waxbill was Species description, formally described in 1766 by the Sw ...

Birds of Southern Africa

{{Estrildidae-stub