Male Zebra Waxbill (Sporaeginthus subflavus)

    Location: Cedara farm, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

    Comments and faves

    1. ★

      eulaewing added this photo to their favorites. (48 months ago)

    2. CharlesLam (48 months ago | reply)

      Beautiful bird, great shot.

    3. Francois Dreyer (48 months ago | reply)

      Good photo. Still need to see this one.

      Roberts 6 and 7 and SASOL 3rd Edition gives the "new" name as Orange-breasted Waxbill. Interesting thing is that SASOL and Roberts PDA list next to the image that the scientific name of this bird is Amandava subflava while the text in Roberts PDA list the scientific name as Sporaeginthus subflavus like you recorded it.

    4. Alan Manson (48 months ago | reply)

      Thanks Francois; I have always known this bird as the Orange-breasted Waxbill (or Rooi-asie), but I have used the Clements (ed 5) names here, because that is the authority used by the "Field Guide: Birds of the World" group. Avibase ( www.bsc-eoc.org/avibase/avibase.jsp?lang=EN& pg=home ) is a great on-line resource for sorting out different names, as well as lumps and splits.

    5. Francois Dreyer (48 months ago | reply)

      Just for interest sake so replies I got from SA Birdnet.

      Matthew Grainger; Zoology Dept Univ Pretoria says

      Just had a quick look at Cities and they use the name Amandava subflava, but note two alternatives Sporaeginthus subflavus and Estrilda subflava. From what little information I can gather it seems there is some taxonmic dispute regarding this species and therefore the two names are currently in use by different authorities and bird book publishers. I will try and dig in a bit further, hopefully someone else might know the full details of the dispute.

      As to its common name, "Zebra Waxbill" is the name they are sold as in the pet trade.

      Ian Hinze from Natural World says:

      Taxonomy can be a real pain. The Orange-breasted Waxbill, a.k.a..Goldbreast and Zebra Waxbill was originally known scientifically as Fringilla subflava, then Sporaeginthus subflavus, then Amandava subflava and now Sporaeginthus subflavus again. However, some taxonomists still prefer to call it Amandava subflava due to its having similarities to the two Asian avadavats.
      Nevertheless, there are also differences which make the bird better placed in Sporaeginthus.

      Which is right? That depends on which YOU prefer. There is no universal agreement as to its scientific name nor even to its English name, although some standardisation as to the latter has been called upon (see Birds of the world - recommended English names by Frank Gill & Minturn Wright and published on behalf of the International Ornithological Congress. Using this publication Orange-breasted Waxbill is the preferred English name).

    6. Dario Corea (48 months ago | reply)

      I've two males of them here in my aviary. No female for them, here in Italy nobody sells those birds no more. Damn!
      My guys:

      Good shot Alan! Beautiful wild subject!

    7. Keith@Worldbirds.eu (47 months ago | reply)

      Hi, I'm an admin for a group called The Friends Of Worldbirds, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

    8. ★

      MDH11 and Keith@Worldbirds.eu added this photo to their favorites.

    Want to format your comment?
    keyboard shortcuts: ← previous photo → next photo L view in light box F favorite < scroll film strip left > scroll film strip right ? show all shortcuts