Quailfinch

Quailfinch
Adult male African quailfinch (Ortygospiza atricollis fuscocrissa) in breeding plumage, The Gambia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Estrildidae
Genus:
Sundevall, 1850
Species:
O. atricollis
Binomial name
Ortygospiza atricollis
(Vieillot, 1817)

The quailfinch (Ortygospiza atricollis) is a species of the estrildid finch. It is found in open grasslands in Africa. They are gregarious seed-eaters with short, thick, red bills. They are very terrestrial, with lark-like feet and claws.

Taxonomy

The quailfinch was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot based on a specimen collected in Senegal.[1] Vieillot coined the binomial name Fringilla atricollis where the specific epithet is from Latin ater meaning "black" and Modern Latin -collis meaning "-necked" or "-throated".[2][3] The quailfinch is now the only species placed in the genus Ortygospiza that was introduced in 1850 by Carl Jakob Sundevall.[4] Sundevall created the genus for a single species, Fringilla polyzona Temminck, 1823, which is now treated as a junior synonym of Fringilla atricollis Vieillot, 1817.[5][6] The genus name Ortygospiza combines the Ancient Greek ορτυξ/ortux, ορτυγος/ortugos meaning "quail" with σπιζα/spiza meaning "finch".[7]

Eleven subspecies are recognised:[4]

  • O. a. atricollis (Vieillot, 1817) – south Mauritania and Senegal to Chad and Cameroon
  • O. a. ansorgei Ogilvie-Grant, 1910 – Gambia and south Senegal to Togo
  • O. a. ugandae Van Someren, 1921 – south Sudan, Uganda and west Kenya
  • O. a. fuscocrissa Heuglin, 1863 – Eritrea and Ethiopia
  • O. a. muelleri Zedlitz, 1911 – south Kenya to Angola, Namibia and south Botswana
  • O. a. smithersi Benson, 1955 – northeast Zambia
  • O. a. pallida Roberts, 1932 – north Botswana
  • O. a. digressa Clancey, 1958 – east Zimbabwe, south Mozambique and South Africa
  • O. a. gabonensis Lynes, 1914 – Gabon to central DR Congo
  • O. a. fuscata Sclater, WL, 1932 – north Angola, south DR Congo and northwest Zambia
  • O. a. dorsostriata Van Someren, 1921 – east DR Congo and south, west Uganda

Previously, the quailfinch was sometimes divided into three species:[4][8]

The locust finch, Paludipasser locustella, is considered a member of this genus by some taxonomists.

Two issues are contentious: First, whether the locustfinch should be included here or given its own monotypic genus. Second, the "African quailfinch" complex might comprise one or three (sub)species. The two-taxon arrangement as found in most field guides and used by the IUCN, was recently shown to be based only on a single character (the color of the chin and throat). It is certainly erroneous, being contradicted by all other morphological, behavioral and DNA sequence data.

The molecular data would support a two-taxon arrangement with the taxa atricollis and fuscocrissa, but this is not supported by the other data. In conclusion, either gabonensis should be merged back into atricollis, or fuscocrissa should be restored to (sub)species status. Gene flow in the "African quailfinch" complex is still ongoing, and the three lineages therein either form a superspecies, or can be considered a single, wide-ranging and very variable species.[8]

References

  1. ^ Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1817). Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle, appliquée aux arts, à l'agriculture, à l'économie rurale et domestique, à la médecine, etc (in French). Vol. 12 (Nouvelle édition ed.). Paris: Deterville. p. 182.
  2. ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 350.
  3. ^ Jobling, James A. "atricollis". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  4. ^ a b c Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Waxbills, parrotfinches, munias, whydahs, Olive Warbler, accentors, pipits". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  5. ^ Sundevall, Carl Jakob (1850). "Foglar från södra Afrika". Öfversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar (in Swedish). 7 (4): 96-111 [98].
  6. ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 349.
  7. ^ Jobling, James A. "Ortygospiza". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 11 August 2025.
  8. ^ a b Payne, Robert B.; Sorenson, Michael D. (2007). "Integrative systematics at the species level: plumage, songs and molecular phylogeny of quailfinches Ortygospiza". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 127 (1): 4–26.
  • Clement, Peter; Harris, Alan & Davis, John (1993): Finches and Sparrows: an identification guide. Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-8017-2


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.