Pink-rumped Rosefinch

A large, spectacular, slender, carmine-pink-and-teal-blue bee-eater with a long pointed tail, black bill, and black facial mask. The immature is duller and shorter-tailed. It gathers in large groups that often attend bush fires, and it specializes in catching large flying insects, including dragonflies, butterflies, and locusts. Breeds colonially by burrowing into sandbanks. It has a complex three-stage migration; it generally breeds between 13–20°S from August–September, disperses south of the breeding area December–March, and then moves north of the breeding area April–August. “Trik-trik-trik” calls are more guttural than those of European Bee-eater. Similar Northern Carmine Bee-eater has a teal-colored (not carmine) chin and throat.

Small. Entirely plain yellowish-olive with a very broad white eye-ring. Restricted to mossy cloud forest, mostly above 950 meters of elevation, but has been recorded down to 350 meters of elevation. Overlaps with Solomons White-eye but has a much broader white eye-ring and is more uniformly olive-green. Song is a long high-pitched warble. Common call is a sharp piercing “peep,” quite different from that of Solomons White-eye.

The breeding male is buff, chestnut, and black with a 21-centimeter tail that is laterally flattened with both short bulging feathers and long, tapering dagger-like feathers. The female and non-breeding male have a strongly contrasting black-and-white head, including a characteristic dark bill and a double “C” pattern under the ear. The males aggressively hold territories, but small groups forage together in dry and moist savanna. After breeding, they flock with other seedeaters. This whydah gives dry chip calls and imitates the calls of the Green-winged Pytilia, which it parasitizes. The Broad-tailed Paradise-Whydah differs from the Eastern Paradise-Whydah as follows: the breeding male has a shorter broader tail; the non-breeding male and female have a paler bill and a plainer facial pattern.