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Green-winged pytilia
Species of bird From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The green-winged pytilia (Pytilia melba) is a small colourful seed-eating bird in the family Estrildidae. It is widespread throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, though it is more rarely seen in central, far southern and coastal western parts of the continent.
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Taxonomy
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The green-winged pytilia was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Fringilla melba.[2] No explanation was provided for the specific epithet melba but it could possibly be from a supposed Chinese word or place.[3] Linnaeus based his description on "The Green Gold-Finch" that had been described and illustrated in 1750 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.[4] Edwards was uncertain of the origin of his specimen and Linnaeus mistakenly specified the locality as China. The specimen was subsequently assumed to be from Angola,[5] but this was restricted to Luanda in Angola by Phillip Clancey in 1962.[6] The green-winged pytilia is now placed in the genus Pytilia that was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson for the red-winged pytilia.[7][8]
Eight subspecies are recognised:[8]
- P. m. citerior Strickland, 1853 – Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia to south Sudan
- P. m. jessei Shelley, 1903 – northeast Sudan to northwest Somalia
- P. m. soudanensis (Sharpe, 1890) – southeast Sudan, south Ethiopia, central, south Somalia, northeast Uganda and north, east Kenya
- P. m. percivali Van Someren, 1919 – central Kenya to north Tanzania
- P. m. belli Ogilvie-Grant, 1907 – east DR Congo and west Uganda to west Tanzania
- P. m. grotei Reichenow, 1919 – east Tanzania, north Mozambique and east Malawi
- P. m. hygrophila Irwin & Benson, 1967 – north Zambia and north Malawi
- P. m. melba (Linnaeus, 1758) – south Congo and Angola to southwest Tanzania and south to central Namibia, north South Africa and south Mozambique
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Gallery
Male, San Diego Zoo
References
External links
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