Tasso Leventis/BirdLife Anambra Waxbill Estrilda poliopareia

Rediscovered: the Anambra Waxbill

26-09-2002

The Anambra Waxbill Estrilda poliopareia has been sighted for the first time since 1987 at Tombia, southern Nigeria when around 40 birds were discovered in the grounds of a nursing college. The Anambra Waxbill is a Vulnerable species, known only from a few localities in southern Nigeria, and is seemingly very rare despite large areas of apparently suitable habitat. BirdLife Treasurer, Tasso Leventis, visited the site and was able to take photographs of the species, one of which is reproduced below. Some taxonomists have considered it a race of the widespread Fawn-breasted Waxbill E. paludicola of southern Africa, but the Anambra Waxbill differs in its white iris, larger size, brighter plumage and larger bill.