Weavers (Ploceidae)

Thick-billed Weaver (Amblyospiza albifrons) - HBW 15, p. 138

French: Amblyospize à front blanc German: Weißstirnweber Spanish: Tejedor Picogordo
Other common names: Grosbeak Weaver, White-fronted Grosbeak

Taxonomy: Pyrrhula albifrons Vigors, 1831, Algoa Bay, South Africa.
Original spelling of genus name is "Amblyospitza", but this form has never been used and best regarded as obsolete. Proposed race woltersi (described from Manhica, in S Mozambique) is synonymized with nominate; saturata (from Bitye, on R Dja, in Cameroon) and tandae (from N Angola) with capitalba; and kasaica (from SE DRCongo) and maxima (from Chobe, in Botswana) with montana. Five subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

capitalba ( Bonaparte, 1850) - S Sierra Leone, SE Guinea, Liberia, C & S Ivory Coast, S Ghana E to SW Nigeria, W & S Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, N Gabon, S Central African Republic, NW DRCongo, and SW PRCongo S to NW Angola.
melanota ( Heuglin, 1863) - S Sudan, SW Ethiopia, E DRCongo, Uganda, W Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and NW Tanzania.
montana van Someren, 1921 - interior of Kenya and Tanzania, SE DRCongo, Zambia, Malawi, N Botswana (Okavango Basin) and NW Zimbabwe.

See all 5 subspecies

capitalba ( Bonaparte, 1850) - S Sierra Leone, SE Guinea, Liberia, C & S Ivory Coast, S Ghana E to SW Nigeria, W & S Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, N Gabon, S Central African Republic, NW DRCongo, and SW PRCongo S to NW Angola.
melanota ( Heuglin, 1863) - S Sudan, SW Ethiopia, E DRCongo, Uganda, W Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and NW Tanzania.
montana van Someren, 1921 - interior of Kenya and Tanzania, SE DRCongo, Zambia, Malawi, N Botswana (Okavango Basin) and NW Zimbabwe.
unicolor ( G. A. Fischer & Reichenow, 1878) - S Somalia, coastal Kenya and Tanzania, Zanzibar and Pemba I.
albifrons ( Vigors, 1831) - E Zimbabwe, C & S Mozambique, Swaziland and E South Africa.