- Vidua chalybeata
Identification
Length 11-12 cm, mass 11.1-16.4 g.
Breeding male: Glossy black plumage. Legs and feet orange, and eyes dark brown. Bill red or white, depending on subspecies: Red in eastern Africa, white west of Victoria falls and pale in the Gambia.
Distribution
Sub-Saharan Africa:
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, eSwatini
Taxonomy
Six subspecies:
- V. c. chalybeata from Senegal to Mali, breeding male with white bill and feet light orange to bright reddish orange
- V. c. neumanni from eastern Mali and Burkino Faso to southern Sudan and Eritrea;
- V. c. ultramarina from Ethiopia
- V. c. centralis from inland Kenya and Tanzania to southern Zaire and north-eastern Zambia
- V. c. okavangoensis north-western Botswana, Caprivi (north-eastern Namibia), Angola and western Zambia
- V. c. amauropteryx coastal eastern Africa (southern Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania) and inland central and southern Africa (southern Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, eastern Botswana, eastern South Africa, eSwatini and Mozambique), breeding male with bill and feet orange to red
Habitat
Savanna, rank vegetation near rivers, roads, croplands and human settlements, and mopane woodlands near water.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on grass seeds (1-2 mm in diameter) on the ground; termite aletes are also eaten, as is cereal meal in villages. Breeding females eat the eggs of the host.
Breeding
Brood parasite of mainly the Red-billed Firefinch.
References
Fry H, Keith S,Woodcook M & Willis I. 2004. Birds of Africa Vol VII: Sparrows to Buntings. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0713665319
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Village Indigobird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 1 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Village_Indigobird
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
