Waxbills (Estrildidae)

Lesser Seedcracker (Pyrenestes minor) - HBW 15, p. 322

French: Petit Pyréneste German: Grantastrild Spanish: Estrilda Piquigorda Chica
Other common names: Nyasa(land) Seedcracker

Taxonomy: Pyrenestes minor Shelley, 1894, Zomba and Milanji Plains, Malawi.
May form a superspecies with P. ostrinus and P. sanguineus, and the three sometimes treated as conspecific. Thick-billed specimen from N Mozambique (Elephant Bend, c. 100 km WNW of Mocuba) described as a new species, P. vincenti, in 1955, and similar one from N Malawi (Kabunduli) was thought to belong to same new species; both individuals, however, now considered to represent size variants of present species. Monotypic.

Distribution: S Tanzania (S from Udzungwa Mts and Uluguru foothills), Malawi, N & C Mozambique and E Zimbabwe.