Angola Waxbill

Coccopygia bocagei

A tiny colorful seed-eating waxbill with a grayish breast, a yellow belly, an olive-green back finely barred with dark gray, and a scarlet rump and upper tail. The male has a black throat patch that the female lacks. A local West Angolan endemic. Pairs and small groups eat grass in open areas adjacent to forest and thickets. Vocalizations are undescribed, but the species probably gives calls similar to the plaintive “swee-swee” and “seeet” of the closely related Swee and Yellow-bellied Waxbills. No similar waxbills overlap in range. 

Taxonomy

Scientific name
Coccopygia bocagei
Authority
Shelley, 1903
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Estrildidae
Genus
Coccopygia

Range and habitat

Migration
Resident species

Conservation

Population trend
stable

Photos

Distribution

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Angola Waxbill | BirdLens