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Pytilia melba

Photo by rudydbn
Photo showing male (upper) and female (lower) taken: Mkhuze, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

[edit] Identification

Variation: a yellow variant where the red in the plumage is replaced by yellow has been noticed in several areas, including the Horn of Africa and South Africa.

[edit] Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa

[edit] Taxonomy

Pytilia melba has nine subspecies:^[1]

• P. m. citerior

• Senegal to Burkina Faso, southern Chad, northern Cameroon and western Sudan

• P. m. jessei

• North-eastern Sudan to Eritrea and north-western Somalia

• P. m. soudanensis

• Eastern Sudan to Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania

• P. m. flavicaudata

• Djibouti

• P. m. grotei

• Eastern Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi and Zanzibar

• P. m. belli

• Western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and western Tanzania

• P. m. percivali

• Central and south-western Kenya to northern and central Tanzania

• P. m. melba

• Congo and DRC to south-western Tanzania, western Malawi and South Africa

• P. m. hygrophila

• Northern Zambia and northern Malawi

[edit] Habitat

Woodland and savanna.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Birdforum thread discussing the yellow variant of Green-winged Pytilia.

• List of references

[edit] External Links