Vidua

Last updated

Vidua
Pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macroura) breeding male.jpg
Male pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macroura)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Viduidae
Genus: Vidua
Cuvier, 1816
Type species
Emberiza vidua [1] = Fringilla macroura
Linnaeus, 1766
Species

see text

Vidua is a genus of passerine birds in the family Viduidae.

The genus was introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1816. [2] The type species was subsequently designated as the pin-tailed whydah. [3] The name Vidua is a Latin word meaning "widow". [4]

The genus contains 19 species: [5]

ImageScientific nameCommon NameDistribution
Village indigobird, Vidua chalybeata, at Mapungubwe National Park, Limpopo, South Africa (male) (17849716130).jpg Vidua chalybeata Village indigobird Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
Male Purple Indigobird (Vidua purpurascens).jpg Vidua purpurascens Purple indigobird Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Vidua raricola Jambandu indigobird Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Togo.
Vidua larvaticola Barka indigobird Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sudan, and South Sudan.
Male Variable Indigobird (Vidua funerea).jpg Vidua funerea Dusky indigobird Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
Vidua codringtoni Zambezi indigobird Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Vidua wilsoni Wilson's indigobird Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, and Togo.
Vidua nigeriae Quailfinch indigobird The Gambia, Nigeria and Cameroon.
Vidua maryae Jos Plateau indigobird Nigeria
Vidua camerunensis Cameroon indigobird Sierra Leone to east Cameroon, north east Zaire and South Sudan.
Vidua macroura -Londolozi Private Game Reserve, Limpopo, South Africa -male-8.jpg Vidua macroura Pin-tailed whydah Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
Vidua hypocherina -Ngorongoro, Tanzania -male-8.jpg Vidua hypocherina Steel-blue whydah Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Vidua fischeri.jpg Vidua fischeri Straw-tailed whydah Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Whydah Shaft-tailed 2007 0107 1231 40AA.jpg Vidua regia Shaft-tailed whydah Southern Africa, from south Angola to south Mozambique
Long-tailed Paradise Whydah (Vidua paradisaea) (17329851342).jpg Vidua paradisaea Long-tailed paradise whydah Eastern Africa, from eastern South Sudan to southern Angola
Vidua orientalis Sahel paradise whydah west Africa
Whydah 2354851969.jpg Vidua interjecta Exclamatory paradise whydah Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, and Togo.
Vidua togoensis Togo paradise whydah Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Vidua obtusa male.jpg Vidua obtusa Broad-tailed paradise whydah Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Related Research Articles

<i>Quiscalus</i> Genus of birds

The avian genus Quiscalus contains seven of the 11 species of grackles, gregarious passerine birds in the icterid family. They are native to North and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viduidae</span> Family of birds

The indigobirds and whydahs, together with the cuckoo-finch, make up the family Viduidae; they are small passerine birds native to Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Estrildidae</span> Family of birds

Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They comprise species commonly known as munias, mannikins, firefinches, parrotfinches and waxbills. Despite the word "finch" being included in the common names of some species, they are not closely related to birds with this name in other families, such as the Fringillidae, Emberizidae or Passerellidae.

<i>Tragopan</i> Genus of birds

Tragopan is a bird genus in the pheasant family Phasianidae. Member of the genus are commonly called "horned pheasants" because males have two brightly colored, fleshy horns on their head that can be erected during courtship displays. The habit of tragopans to nest in trees is unique among phasianids.

<i>Dicaeum</i> Genus of birds

Dicaeum is a genus of birds in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae, a group of passerines tropical southern Asia and Australasia from India east to the Philippines and south to Australia. The genus Dicaeum is closely related to the genus Prionochilus and forms a monophyletic group.

<i>Padda</i> Genus of birds

Padda is a genus of estrildid finches restricted to islands in southern Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey-capped greenfinch</span> Species of bird

The grey-capped greenfinch or Oriental greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae that breeds in broadleaf and conifer woodlands of the East Palearctic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-tailed paradise whydah</span> Species of bird

The long-tailed paradise whydah or eastern paradise whydah is from the family Viduidae of the order Passeriformes. They are small passerines with short, stubby bills found across Sub-Saharan Africa. They are mostly granivorous and feed on seeds that have ripen and fall on the ground. The ability to distinguish between males and females is quite difficult unless it is breeding season. During this time, the males molt into breeding plumage where they have one distinctive feature which is their long tail. It can grow up to three times longer than its own body or even more. Usually, the whydahs look like ordinary sparrows with short tails during the non-breeding season. In addition, hybridization can occur with these paradise whydahs. Males are able to mimic songs where females can use that to discover their mate. However, there are some cases where females don't use songs to choose their mate but they use either male characteristics like plumages or they can have a shortage of options with song mimicry. Paradise whydahs are brood parasites. They won't destroy the eggs that are originally there but will lay their own eggs in other songbirds nest. Overall, these whydahs are considered least concerned based on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

<i>Cacatua</i> Genus of birds

Cacatua is a genus of cockatoos found from the Philippines and Wallacea east to the Solomon Islands and south to Australia. They have a primarily white plumage, an expressive crest, and a black or pale bill. Today, several species from this genus are considered threatened due to a combination of habitat loss and capture for the wild bird trade, with the blue-eyed cockatoo, Moluccan cockatoo, and umbrella cockatoo considered vulnerable, and the red-vented cockatoo and yellow-crested cockatoo considered critically endangered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaft-tailed whydah</span> Species of bird

The shaft-tailed whydah or queen whydah is a small, sparrow-like bird in the genus Vidua. During the breeding season the male has black crown and upper body plumage, golden breast and four elongated black tail shaft feathers with expanded tips. After the breeding season is over, the male sheds its long tail and grows olive brown female-like plumage.

<i>Dacnis</i> Genus of birds

Dacnis is a genus of Neotropical birds in the tanager family Thraupidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vietnamese greenfinch</span> Species of bird

The Vietnamese greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the family Fringillidae. It is found only in Đà Lạt Plateau of southern Vietnam. Its natural habitat is open montane pine forest and scrubland. It is threatened by habitat loss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuckoo-finch</span> Species of bird

The cuckoo-finch, also known as the parasitic weaver or cuckoo weaver, is a small passerine bird now placed in the family Viduidae with the indigobirds and whydahs. It occurs in grassland in Africa south of the Sahara. The male is mainly yellow and green while the female is buff with dark streaks. They lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scarlet-backed flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The scarlet-backed flowerpecker is a species of passerine bird in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae. Sexually dimorphic, the male has navy blue upperparts with a bright red streak down its back from its crown to its tail coverts, while the female and juvenile are predominantly olive green. It is found in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and occasionally gardens in a number of countries throughout South and East Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broad-tailed paradise whydah</span> Species of bird

The broad-tailed paradise whydah is a species of bird in the family Viduidae. It is found woodland and acacia savanna habitat in Sub-Saharan Africa from Angola to Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. A brood parasite, it has a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed it as being of least concern.

<i>Pytilia</i> Genus of birds

Pytilia is a genus of small brightly coloured seed-eating birds in the family Estrildidae. They are distributed across Africa.

<i>Cinnyris</i> Genus of birds

Cinnyris is a genus of sunbirds. Its members are sometimes included in Nectarinia. They are generally known as double-collared sunbirds because the fringe of their bib usually includes a band of contrastingly coloured feathers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenfinch</span> Genus of birds

The greenfinches are small passerine birds in the genus Chloris in the subfamily Carduelinae within the Fringillidae. The species have a Eurasian distribution except for the European greenfinch, which also occurs in North Africa.

<i>Pyrgilauda</i> Genus of birds

Pyrgilauda is a genus of passerine birds in the sparrow family Passeridae. They are found in the Himalayas, Tibet and western China.

<i>Edolisoma</i> Genus of birds

Edolisoma is a genus of birds in the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae that are native to the Central Indo-Pacific region, Australia and New Guinea.

References

  1. "Viduidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  2. Cuvier, Georges (1816). Le Règne animal distribué d'après son organisation : pour servir de base a l'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction a l'anatomie comparée (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Déterville. pp. 388–389.
  3. Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. p. 303. ISBN   978-0-9568611-2-2.
  4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 401. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Waxbills, parrotfinches, munias, whydahs, Olive Warbler, accentors, pipits". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 May 2018.