Possible Violet Widowfinch in Botswana? L Marc Herremans & 2Wendy D
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Possible Violet Widowfinch in Botswana? l Marc Herremans & 2Wendy D. Borello l Royal Museum for CentralAfrica, Tervuren, Belgium; e m ail : h m ans@ af ricam u se u m.be 2 PO Box 631, Gaborone, Botswana; email : [email protected] Loon ( | 998) reported on the occurrence of a canaries, sometimes in mixed flocks. Such widowfinch associated with Brown Fire- opportunistic associations are not necessarily finches Luponosticta nitidula in the interior enlightening for the breeding ecology of the of the Okavango Delta (northern Botswana), species. and tentatively identified it as a Violet Widow- Brewster (1989) reported on widow- finch Vidua incognitalv'iLroai; also because finches near Gumare (western Okavango), the bird fiued the pale bill/red leg morph- and lbund that all had pale bill/pink legs, ology attributed to that species in its original imitated Redbilled Firefinches (excepr for description 1i.e. Nicolai 1972:rype from un- one unidentified), and were therefore Steel- known locality in Angola. paratype from bfue Widowfinches \jiduu chulyheata. Katanga). Loon (1998) caught a single adult Traylor ( 1965) collected three males in breed- in a misrner on29lo7 11997. which during a ing plumage with pale bill/pink legs at Sepu- four week period yielded four times more pa and Nokaneng (western Okavango); he Brown Firefinches than Redbitled Firefinches considered them to be Steelblue Widow- L. sene.q,ala (24 to 6). finches (however, the Violet Widowfinch had While we have no problenr with the gen- not yet been described). Near Maun, pink- erally cautious tone of Loon's comprehensive billed Steelblue Widowfinches predominate, notc on thc exi\tence and taxonomic m) \tcry but pale-billed also occur (Brewster 1988; that the Violet Widowfinch still poses, and on Payne 1996; pers. obs.). Similarly, near the need for further study of the widow- Livingstone (Zambia) Steelblue Widow- finches in the Okavango, we would like to finches with pale and pink bill coloration co- comment on the tentative evidencc proposed occur (Stjernstedt 1998). The pale-billed for the occurrence ofthis taxon in Botswana. birds (centralrsi generally have a northerly Brown Firefinches are generally more range in Africa, though they occupy the west- common in the riparian vegetation in the erly regions at the edge of their range in Okavango Delta than Redbilled Firefinches. southern Africa, from the Okavango north- Thus, any widowfinch in this habitat is statis- wards to Uganda, while pink-billed birds tically more likely to be found 'associated' at (amaurttpterlx) occur more to the east and some stage with the former. The widowfinch south in southem Africa (Payne 1996; Stjern- was caught at the end of Juiy, which is alier stedt 1998). I the breeding season of firefinches in the A few widowfinches imitating Brown region (Harrison et al. 1991).\ was an adult Firefinches have been found in Zambia and female or non-breeding male, and no male Zimbabwe (Sdernstedt 1998): but these had bird in breeding plumage was recorded, let pink bills (Stjemstedt in litt.'1 and do therefore alone one defending a territory with the ap- not fit the original species concept of the Vio- propriate Brown Firefinch song imitation. let Widowfinch (Payne 1996). One of the Outside the breeding season, seed-eating possible explanations is that these are the passerines tend to flock to suitable patches of result of an incidental host switch (Sdernstedt food, which are frequented by several species 1998) by Steelblue Widowfinches. Apparent of firefinches, waxbills, widowfinches and incidental switches have also been reported in Safring News (2000) 29:79-80 80 Herremans & Borello Violet Widowfinch 2000 the Green Widowfinch V. r'odringtoni (Payne Brown, C.J. 1991 . The atlas of southern er al. 1992). African birds. Johannesburg: Birdlife In conclusion. we do not want to dismiss South Africa. the possible occurrence of the Violet Widow- Loon, R. 1998. Possible brood parasite of the finch or another parasite of the Brown Fire- Brown Fircfinch from Jedibe. Botswana. l'inch in Botswana. neither do we dismiss the Safring News 27: 3 5. need lbr further study of the widowfinches in Nictrlai, J. 1972. Zwei neue Hvpochero- thc Okavango. However, we f ind the evi- Arten aus West-Afrika (Ploceidae. Vidu- dence presented by Loon (1998) too weak. inae). Journal fiir Ornithologie l13:229- even for a tentative identification of the birds 210. as Violet Widowfinches. In the light of exist- Payne, R.B. 1996. Field identification of the ing knowledge Loon's description fits thc Indigobirds. Bulletin of the African Bird pale-billecl form of Stcclbluc Widowfinch Club 3: 14 25. acceptably well. Payne, R.8., Payne, L.L. & Nhlane, M.E.D. 1992. Song mimicry and species status of REFERENCES the Green Widowfinch Vidua codrin,qtoni. Ostrich 63: 86 97. Brewster, C. l98tl. Birding along the Tha- Stjernstedt, R.S. 1998. Brown Firefinch malakane and Boteti Rivers. Babbler 15: Indigobird near Livingstone. Zambia Bird 26-28. Report 1991:.51. Brewster C. 1989. Observations of widow- Traylor, M.A. 1965. A collection of birds finches in Ngamiland. Babbler l7: 34-35. tiom Barotseland and Bechuanaland. Ibis Harrison, J.A., Allan, D.G., Underhill, L.G., 107: 357-384. Herremans, M., Tree, A.J., Parker, V. & This table is a summary compiled fiom Maclean 1993 (Roberts' hirtls of southern AJritu. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Books) and Payne 1996 (see above) for easy rcf'erence. Ed. Vldua species of southern and central Africa Vidua (Widowfinch) Host Bitl Legs I Red l'. t ha -t heatu Steelblue Lu!,onosti(ta sencgulu Redbilled Firefinch Red li. purpurastens Purple L. rhotlopureia Jameson's Firefinch Whitish Whitish V. funerea Black L. rubritata Bluebilled Firefinch White Red l-. t otl r i n,e,t o ni Green/Iwinspot Hvpurgos nireoguttutus Redthroated Tu'inspot White Red l'. r'ilsoni Violet L. nititlulu Brown Firefinch White Pinkish.