The purple grenadier (Granatina ianthinogaster) is a common species of estrildid finch found in eastern Africa.
| Purple grenadier | |
|---|---|
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| A male in Naboisho Conservancy, Kenya | |
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| Female, in Serengeti National Park | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Estrildidae |
| Genus: | Granatina |
| Species: | G. ianthinogaster
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| Binomial name | |
| Granatina ianthinogaster (Reichenow, 1879)
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Description edit
The length averages 13.3 cm (5.25 in). All ages and sexes have a black tail, and adults have a red bill. The male has a cinnamon-colored head and neck with a blue patch surrounding the eye. The rump is purplish blue and the underparts are violet-blue with variable rufous patches. The female is smaller and mostly cinnamon brown with white barring on the underparts and silver-blue eyepatches. Juveniles are like females, but mostly unbarred tawny-brown with a reddish-brown bill.[2]
The song (in Kenya) is described as "a high, thin chit-cheet tsereea-ee-ee tsit-tsit, or cheerer cheet tsee-tsee sur-chit."[2]
Range and habitat edit
It is found in subtropical and tropical (lowland) dry shrubland in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,500,000 km2. The status of the species is evaluated as Least Concern.[3]
References edit
- ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Granatina ianthinogaster". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22719504A94630724. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22719504A94630724.en.
- ^ a b Zimmerman, Dale A.; Turner, Donald A.; Pearson, David J. (1999). Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania. Princeton University Press. pp. 254–255, 553. ISBN 978-0-691-01022-9.
- ^ BirdLife International (2004). "Uraeginthus ianthinogaster". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2004. Retrieved 7 June 2007. .
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