Purple Grenadier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Purple Grenadier
Captive adult male
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Estrildidae Genus: Uraeginthus Species: U. ianthinogaster
Binomial name
Uraeginthus ianthinogaster Reichenow, 1879

The Purple Grenadier (Uraeginthus ianthinogaster) is a common species of estrildid finch found in eastern Africa.

[edit] Description

The length averages 13.3 cm (5.25 in). All ages and sexes have a black tail, and adults have a red bill. The male has a cinnamon-colored head and neck with a blue patch surrounding the eye. The rump is purplish blue and the underparts are violet-blue with variable rufous patches. The female is smaller and mostly cinnamon brown with white barring on the underparts and silver-blue eyepatches. Juveniles are like females, but mostly unbarred tawny-brown with a reddish-brown bill.^[1]

The song (in Kenya) is described as "a high, thin chit-cheet tsereea-ee-ee tsit-tsit, or cheerer cheet tsee-tsee sur-chit."^[1]

[edit] Range and habitat

It is found in subtropical and tropical (lowland) dry shrubland in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,500,000 km². The status of the species is evaluated as Least Concern.^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Zimmerman, Dale A.; Turner, Donald A.; Pearson, David J. (1999). Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania. Princeton University Press, pp. 254–255, 553. ISBN 0-69101022-9. Retrieved on 2007-06-07. 
2. ^ BirdLife International (2004). Uraeginthus ianthinogaster. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 07 June 2007. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern.