Fawn-breasted waxbill facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Fawn-breasted waxbill |
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| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Estrildidae |
| Genus: | Estrilda |
| Species: |
E. paludicola
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| Binomial name | |
| Estrilda paludicola Heuglin, 1863
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The Fawn-breasted Waxbill (Estrilda paludicola) is a small, common bird found in central Africa. It's a type of estrildid finch, which means it's related to many other small, seed-eating birds. This little bird lives across a huge area, about 1.8 million square kilometers! Scientists sometimes group similar birds together. The Fawn-breasted Waxbill includes some birds that were once thought to be separate species.
Contents
About the Fawn-breasted Waxbill
How it Got its Name
The Fawn-breasted Waxbill was officially described in 1863. This was done by a German explorer and bird expert named Theodor von Heuglin. He found a specimen of the bird near the Bahr el Ghazal River in South Sudan. He gave it the scientific name Estrilda paludicola. The word paludicola comes from Latin. It means "marsh-dweller," which tells us where these birds like to live.
Different Types of Fawn-breasted Waxbills
Just like people can have different looks depending on where they live, birds can too. These slightly different groups are called subspecies. There are six known subspecies of the Fawn-breasted Waxbill:
- E. p. paludicola Heuglin, 1863 – Found from the eastern Central African Republic and northern DR Congo to western Kenya.
- E. p. roseicrissa Reichenow, 1892 – Lives in eastern DR Congo and southwestern Uganda to northwestern Tanzania.
- E. p. marwitzi Reichenow, 1900 – Found in central south Tanzania.
- E. p. benguellensis Neumann, 1908 – Lives in Angola, southern DR Congo, and Zambia.
- E. p. ruthae Chapin, 1950 – Found in central DR Congo.
- E. p. ochrogaster Salvadori, 1897 – Lives in southeastern Sudan and Ethiopia.
One of these subspecies, E. p. ochrogaster, is sometimes called the Abyssinian Waxbill. Some experts have even thought it might be its own separate species.
Where Fawn-breasted Waxbills Live
The Fawn-breasted Waxbill is commonly found in many parts of central Africa. It prefers wet grasslands in warm, low-lying areas. But you can also find it in dry forests and bushy areas.
These birds live in countries like:
- Angola
- Burundi
- Central African Republic
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Kenya
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Uganda
- Zambia
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) keeps track of how many animals are left in the wild. They have listed the Fawn-breasted Waxbill as a species of "least concern." This means there are still plenty of them around, and they are not currently at risk of disappearing.
 | Misty Copeland |
 | Raven Wilkinson |
 | Debra Austin |
 | Aesha Ash |
