Blue caps V Red cheek Cordons

[Buzzard-1]

Have been Doing some research. Apparently There are 3 members of the Uraeginthus family. These are Red-cheeked Cordon Blue, Uraeginthus bengalalous, Blue-headed Cordon Blue, Uraeginthus cyanocephalus, and the Blue Waxbill, Uraeginthus angolensis. The Red-cheeked Cordon Blue embraces 3 recognised sub species none of which show the red cheek patch. Blue-headed Cordon Blue, also included Violet-eared waxbill and the Purple Grenadier. Arcording to RK and a couple of web sites that seem to back this up.

[nathan morley]

Thanks buzz that's very interesting .

[monotwine]

I've only ever known Uraeginthus to be made up of the 5 species/subspecies - 3 Cordon-bleu and the 2 Grenadiers

No surprise all of them are my favourite type of birds, though I lean more heavily toward the Grenadiers.

[Jayburd]

Are violet ears grenadiers?
I saw in a book the other day a subspecies RC hen, brown almost all over! I dunno what's going on there!

[desertbirds]

It probably had fallen in the mud Jayburd. What constitutes a sub species i wonder.??

[Jayburd]

that's what I thought at first!
then again, it was a hen
good question - maybe Gregh can help us out?

[finchbreeder]

Or maybe a new mutation? But does not sound as nice as the original.
LML

[toothlessjaws]

What constitutes a sub species i wonder.??

a subspecies can best be described as a "race" of given species, although from my readings, human races, whilst sometimes looking dramatically different from eachother are in actual fact far too similar genetically to be able to be described as a "subspecies" when compared to those found in animals.

so a subspecies is a population of animals that have been isolated long enough to evolve slight difference from another population of the same species, but not enough difference to be able to be considered a different species in their own right. they are, in effect a "new species in the making" - but not quite there yet.

not all species contain multiple subspecies either. for example the Javan gibbon has not the space or change in habitats on its island for two populations to have diverged from one another.

a subspecies is always classified by the existence of a third name in latin. for example the tiger species is classified as Panthera tigris however the tiger has various subspecies and any pure tiger specimen will have a third name added to the end of this. the sumatrtan tiger is Panthera tigris sumatrae the siberian tiger is Panthera tigris altica.

all species that contain various subspecies will always have one subspecies that is considered the nominate subspecies. that is the first member of the tiger subspecies that was officially described as "a tiger" by a zoologist way back when. the nominate subspecies always shares the same subspecies name as its species. in tigers for example the nominate subspecies is the indian (or bengal tiger) which is thus classified as Panthera tigris tigris.

sometimes the species shares the same common, genus, species and subspecies name. the Lowland Western Gorilla's scientific classification is Gorilla gorilla gorilla!

[Jayburd]

Thanks TJ

[monotwine]

Are violet ears grenadiers?
I saw in a book the other day a subspecies RC hen, brown almost all over! I dunno what's going on there!

Yip Jay far as I know the VE are Common Grenadiers and the othe the Purple Grenadier (which has two subspecies).
http://www.hofmann-photography.de/index ... x_estrild/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is a great site for looking up species too. Well labelled and photographed.