Focus on African Finches: The Subspecies Question

Abstract

Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu Uraeginthus bengalus

While East African Red-billed Firefinches have been recognized as something special, I don't believe the Redcheeked Cordon Bleus that arrived in some numbers from Tanzania as recently as mid-1994 have been correspondingly distinguished. Goodwin 0982) lists two subspecies whose range includes Tanzania, and neither differs markedly from the western U. b. bengalus. ""U. b. ugogoensis, from northern and western Tanzania, is a slightly duller brown above and the female has the brown at the sides of the neck extending more forwards, under the blue ear coverts. The form from coastal Kenya and Tanzania, U. b. littoralis, is said ... to be slightly smaller and the male to have a smaller red facial patch." There is, at present, a deal of effort being invested towards establishing this bird in America, and l suppose many people who already had western birds have supplemented their stock with Tanzanian ones, and crossed them well to avoid inbreeding. The nominate U. b. bengalus has an uninterrupted range from the Atlantic coast east to the Red Sea, and South to western Kenya and Uganda (Goodwin, 1982), and I would be surprised if there were not many areas where it and the Tanzanian subspecies intergrade.

St. Helena Waxbill Estrilda astrild

In contrast to its close relative, the Black-rumped or Red-eared Waxbill E. troglodytes (once the commonest African finch in the U.S. and now likewise CITES Appendix Ill), which has no subspecies at all over its vast range from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, the St. Helena Waxbill has m;my. Goodwin (1982) describes nine particularly distinct ones. It appears two subspecies arrived in the recent imports from Tanzania, and at least some were differentiated as "Greater"and "Lesser" St. Helena Waxbills. I beg Ii eve the birds Fort Wo1th Zoo purchased ~ inJanuary, 1992 are E. a. minor, from ~ Kenya and north-eastern Kenya. Their "small, rose-red belly patch" (Goodwin, 1982), basically grayish underparts without a pervasive pinkish suffusion, "clear barring", and white cheeks and throat, are diagnostic. The fact that a Firefronted Bishop, which in Tanzania is found only in the North-east, was discovered in the same consignment (Lindholm, l 993b), appears to confirm this. Derek Goodwin considers this subspecies, true to its name "minor", to be one of the smallest ones.

The "Greater" St. Helena from Tanzania wouldappearto be E. a. caoendesbi, found from central and south-eastern Tanzania south into South Africa (Good- win, 1982), which does have some pinkg:_ ish suffusion and is browner. The fawn ~ mutation, imported to this country from f Australia, was described to me by Carol ~ Ann Calvin and Stash Buckley as being ~ definitely "real big" in comparison to ~ other St. Helenas, and conspicuously if barred. This leads me to believe the an-

cestors of this strain were the nominate subspecies, from southern South Africa. While most of the St. Helenas now in this country came from Tanzania, Ed Hamilton informs me some arrived from Guinea. Unfortunately, Goodwin (1982) does not provide a description or give a name to the isolated population found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, The Ivory Coast, and Liberia. It would be most helpful if...