From Opus

Alternative name: African Golden-breasted Bunting

Photo by jdbirdman
Pilanesberg, South Africa

Emberiza flaviventris

[edit] Identification

15-16cm
Male

• White crown
• Black lateral crown stripes
• White supercilium
• Black-bordered white ear coverts
• Orange-yellow underparts
• Yellow throat
• Whitish lower belly
• Chestnut upperparts
• Grey rump
• Brown wings with two white wing bars
  

Sexes are very similar, but females - buff tone to head, browner head stripes, and the back may have dark streaks.
Young birds are duller and paler than the females.

[edit] Distribution

Africa, south of the Sahara; absent from the equatorial forest belt.
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, Mali, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, DRC and Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Swaziland

[edit] Taxonomy

There are four subspecies^[1]:

• E. f. flavigaster: paler, redder back, pale grey rump, paler yellow underparts and whiter flanks

• Southern edge of Sahara from Mauritania to Eritrea

• E. f. kalaharica:

• Southern Angola to south-eastern Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique and northern South Africa

• E. f. flaviventris:

• Southern and eastern Cape Province to KwaZulu-Natal

• E. f. princeps: similar to nominate, but larger, and paler below

• Northern and north-western Namibia to south-western Angola

[edit] Habitat

Dry open woodlands.

[edit] Behaviour

It is normally seen alone, in pairs or small groups.

[edit] Breeding

They build a cup nest lined with fine grass or hair low in a shrub. The 2-3 glossy, black-lined, white or cream eggs are incubated for 12-13 days; the young fledge in another 16-17 days.

[edit] Diet

A ground feeder, the diet includes seeds, insects and spiders and sometimes larger creatures when the birds have young to feed.

[edit] External Links