Red-faced crimsonwing

The red-faced crimsonwing (Cryptospiza reichenovii) is a common species of estrildid finch found in Africa. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 390,000 km².

Red-faced crimsonwing
Female in Zimbabwe
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Estrildidae
Genus:	Cryptospiza
Species:	C. reichenovii
Binomial name
Cryptospiza reichenovii (Hartlaub, 1874)

It is native to subsaharan mountainous regions : Bioko and the Western High Plateau, the Albertine Rift montane forests and east Africa (from northern Tanzania to eastern Zimbabwe).

Taxonomy

The red-faced crimsonwing was formally described in 1874 by the German ornithologist Gustav Hartlaub based on a female specimen that had been collected by Anton Reichenow near Bondongo (Bonjongo) in west Cameroon, West Africa. Hartlaub coined the binomial name Pytelia reichenovii where the specific epithet was chosen to honour the collector.^[2][3] The red-faced crimsonwing is now one of four species placed in the genus Cryptospiza that was introduced in 1884 by the Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori.^[4]

Three subspecies are recognised:^[4]

• C. r. reichenovii (Hartlaub, 1874) – southeast Nigeria, Cameroon, northwest Angola and the island of Bioko
• C. r. ocularis Sharpe, 1902 – east DR Congo, southwest Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi
• C. r. australis Shelley, 1896 – Tanzania to Malawi, east Zimbabwe and west Mozambique