From Opus

Photo by jbirdman
Pilanesberg, South Africa

Alternative name: African Golden-breasted Bunting

Emberiza flaviventris

[edit] Identification

15-16cm. Male - white crown, black lateral crown stripes, white supercilium and black-bordered white ear coverts, orange-yellow underparts, yellow throat, whitish lower belly, chestnut upperparts, grey rump, brown wings with two white wing bars. The 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.

E. f. princeps is similar, but larger, and paler below. E. f. flavigaster has paler, redder back, pale grey rump, paler yellow underparts and whiter flanks.

[edit] Distribution

Africa, south of the Sahara; absent from the equatorial forest belt.

[edit] Taxonomy

There are three subspecies:

• E. f. flaviventris, the nominate form, occurs from in the rest of the range from the Cape to southernmost Sudan.
• E. f. flavigaster occurs in a narrow belt across the southern edge of the Sahara, and its range is discontinuous with the other subspecies.
• E. f. princeps occurs in southern Angola and Namibia.

[edit] Habitat

Dry open woodlands.

[edit] Behaviour

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

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

It is a ground feeder and the diet includes seeds, insects and spiders, animal prey being taken mostly when the birds have young.

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