Waxbills (Estrildidae)

Common Waxbill (Estrilda astrild) - HBW 15, p. 317

French: Astrild ondulé German: Wellenastrild Spanish: Estrilda Común
Other common names: Brown/Barred Waxbill, St Helena Waxbill; Black-lored/Black-faced(!)/Kiabo Waxbill (nigriloris)

Taxonomy: Loxia Astrild Linnaeus, 1758, "Canaries, America, Africa" = Cape Town, South Africa.
Distinctive black-faced race nigriloris sometimes considered a separate species, morphologically distinct from other races and not overlapping them in range; in recent studies of mitochondrial phylogeny, however, nigriloris found to be embedded in single clade with all other races, and to be genetically nearly identical to adesma and cavendishi (which it replaces along R Lualaba), and slightly more different from rubriventris and occidentalis. Other proposed races include sousae (described from São Tomé, where species introduced), treated as synonym of jagoensis; schoutedeni (from Mbuji-Mayi, capital of Kasai-Oriental, in SC DRCongo), synonymized with cavendishi; and ngamiensis (from Shorobe, in NW Botswana), synonymized with niediecki. Race adesma sometimes listed as nyansae, but under the ICZN Code this name is permanently invalid, having been replaced due to secondary homonymy prior to 1960. Sixteen subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

kempi Bates, 1930 - W Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
occidentalis Jardine & Fraser, 1851 - S Mali, Ivory Coast, Bioko I (Fernando Póo), and Nigeria E to N DRCongo.
macmillani Ogilvie-Grant, 1907 - S Sudan.

See all 16 subspecies

kempi Bates, 1930 - W Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
occidentalis Jardine & Fraser, 1851 - S Mali, Ivory Coast, Bioko I (Fernando Póo), and Nigeria E to N DRCongo.
macmillani Ogilvie-Grant, 1907 - S Sudan.
peasei Shelley, 1903 - Ethiopia.
rubriventris ( Vieillot, 1823) - coastal Gabon S to NW Angola.
adesma Reichenow, 1916 - E DRCongo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and NW Tanzania.
massaica Neumann, 1907 - C Kenya S to N Tanzania.
minor ( Cabanis, 1878) - S Somalia, E Kenya, NE Tanzania, and Zanzibar I.
nigriloris Chapin, 1928 - upper R Lualaba and L Upemba, in SE DRCongo.
cavendishi Sharpe, 1900 - SE DRCongo (except L Upemba area) and S Tanzania S to Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
jagoensis Alexander, 1898 - coastal W Angola.
angolensis Reichenow, 1902 - W Angola (except coast).
niediecki Reichenow, 1916 - C Angola E to SW Zambia, N Botswana and W Zimbabwe.
damarensis Reichenow, 1902 - Namibia.
astrild ( Linnaeus, 1758) - S Botswana, and W & S South Africa (North West Province S to Western Cape and Free State).
tenebridorsa Clancey, 1957 - N & E South Africa (Limpopo S to Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal) and W Swaziland.