Waxbills (Estrildidae)

African Quailfinch (Ortygospiza atricollis) - HBW 15, p. 300

French: Astrild-caille à lunettes German: Wachtelastrild Spanish: Estrilda Codorniz
Other common names: Common/White-chinned/Black-billed Quailfinch, (Kenya) Partridge Finch; Black-chinned/Black-faced/Red-billed Quailfinch (gabonensis, fuscata, dorsostriata); Ethiopian/Dark-vented Quailfinch (fuscocrissa, muelleri, digressa, smithersi and pallida)

Taxonomy: Fringilla atricollis Vieillot, 1817, Senegal.
Taxonomy complex. Races often treated as comprising two or three separate species, one consisting of nominate race, ansorgei and ugandae, one comprising black-chinned races gabonensis, fuscata and dorsostriata, and one containing white-spectacled fuscocrissa, muelleri, digressa, smithersi and pallida. Such treatment supported by studies of mitochondrial genes, which indicate that these groups form three separate clades, with "gabonensis group" and "fuscocrissa group" more closely related to each other than either is to "atricollis group"; on other hand, races intergrade in facial pattern, and groups do not form genetically monophyletic lineages, do not differ in vocalizations, in bill colour when breeding, or in nestling mouth markings and colours. Treatment as a single species considered preferable, pending further study. Proposed races minuscula (described from upper Zambezi at Balovale, in Zambia), intermediate in plumage between fuscata and muelleri, and bradfieldi (from Okahandja, in Namibia), mostly paler than latter, are both synonymized with muelleri. Eleven subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

atricollis ( Vieillot, 1817) - S Mauritania, Senegal (except Casamance) and S Mali E to Nigeria, SW Chad and Cameroon.
ansorgei Ogilvie-Grant, 1910 - SW Gambia, S Senegal (Casamance), Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone E, discontinuously, along coast to Togo.
ugandae van Someren, 1921 - S Sudan, Uganda and W Kenya.

See all 11 subspecies

atricollis ( Vieillot, 1817) - S Mauritania, Senegal (except Casamance) and S Mali E to Nigeria, SW Chad and Cameroon.
ansorgei Ogilvie-Grant, 1910 - SW Gambia, S Senegal (Casamance), Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone E, discontinuously, along coast to Togo.
ugandae van Someren, 1921 - S Sudan, Uganda and W Kenya.
fuscocrissa Heuglin, 1863 - Eritrea and Ethiopia.
gabonensis Lynes, 1914 - Gabon E to C DRCongo.
fuscata W. L. Sclater, 1932 - N Angola, S DRCongo and NW Zambia.
dorsostriata van Someren, 1921 - E DRCongo E to S & W Uganda.
muelleri Zedlitz, 1911 - S Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Namibia and Botswana.
smithersi Benson, 1955 - NE Zambia.
pallida Roberts, 1932 - N Botswana.
digressa Clancey, 1958 - E Zimbabwe, S Mozambique and N, E & SW South Africa.