Malimbus

Malimbus
Red-headed malimbe (Malimbus rubricollis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Ploceidae
Genus:	Malimbus Vieillot, 1805
Type species
Malimbus cristatus Vieillot, 1805=Tanagra malimbica Daudin, 1802

Malimbus is a genus of birds in the family Ploceidae that are found in sub-Saharan Africa.

Taxonomy

The genus Malimbus was introduced in 1805 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot to accommodate a single species, Malibus cristatus Vieillot. ^[1] This is the type species. It is a junior synonym of Tanagra malimbica, the crested malimbe, that had been described by the French zoologist François Marie Daudin in 1802. ^[2]

The genus contains the following ten species: ^[3]

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
	Malimbus coronatus	Red-crowned malimbe	Central Africa
	Malimbus cassini	Cassin's malimbe	Central Africa
	Malimbus racheliae	Rachel's malimbe	western Central Africa
	Malimbus ballmanni	Gola malimbe	Gola Forest in Sierra Leone and in western Liberia, eastern Liberia to western Ivory Coast and Diecke Forest Reserve in Guinea
	Malimbus scutatus	Red-vented malimbe	West Africa
	Malimbus ibadanensis	Ibadan malimbe	Nigeria
	Malimbus nitens	Blue-billed malimbe	African tropical rainforest
	Malimbus rubricollis	Red-headed malimbe	African tropical rainforest
	Malimbus erythrogaster	Red-bellied malimbe	Central Africa
	Malimbus malimbicus	Crested malimbe	African tropical rainforest

References

1. Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1805). Histoire naturelle des plus beaux oiseaux chanteurs de la zone torride (in French). Paris: Chez J.E. Gabriel Dufour. p. 71.
2. Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1962). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 15. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 57.
3. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Old World sparrows, snowfinches, weavers". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 29 October 2025.