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GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in OpenLab2009.
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Topic Categories: Birding • Education • Mystery Birds • Photography • Teaching • Travel
Posted on: July 18, 2009 9:59 AM, by "GrrlScientist"
tags: Swee Waxbill, Yellow-bellied Waxbill, Estrilda melanotis, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Yellow-bellied Waxbill, also known as the Swee Waxbill, Estrilda melanotis, photographed on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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Comments
Using my trusty Sinclair & Ryan Birds of Africa south of the Sahara, I think this bird is a Yellow-bellied Waxbill (East African Swee), Coccopygia quartinia. It has a bicolored, conical bill (black on top, red below), red uppertail coverts and base of upper tail, olive-ish back and wings, plain gray face, head, and throat, and (vaguely in this case) yellowish belly. The other similarly colored waxbills are found in southern Africa.
Posted by: Rob | July 18, 2009 4:09 PM
And it's a gorgeous bird.
Posted by: Rob | July 18, 2009 4:18 PM