Red-cheeked Wattle-eye (Platysteira blissetti) [XC48252]
by Sander Bot from Atewa Range, Ghana, Ghana (song)
Red-cheeked Wattle-eye (Platysteira blissetti) [XC24908]
by Sander Bot from Gola Forest, Sierra Leone (song)
Subspecies
Red-cheeked Wattle-eye (Dyaphorophyia blissetti), Black-necked Wattle-eye (Dyaphorophyia chalybea) and Jameson's Wattle-eye (Dyaphorophyia jamesoni) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) are retained as separate species contra Louette (2007) who lumps them.
Closest to Rufous-bellied Wattle-eye (Dyaphorophyia concreta). Black-breasted morph of Angolan subspecies ansorgei of latter suspected of being hybrid between the two. Subspecies of present species sometimes considered to represent three separate species forming a superspecies. Western nominate subspecies and eastern jamesoni are well separated geographically, but are very similar morphologically and acoustically; chalybea seemingly somewhat outstanding morphologically because of its yellow underparts (adult, although all juveniles are very similar), but is situated geographically between the other two, and is parapatric to nominate, from which altitudinally segregated in vicinity of Mt Cameroon. Further study is required.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
blissetti (Sharpe, 1872) - Patchily in forests from Sierra Leone and Guinea east to western Cameroon (east to Mt Cameroon).
chalybea Reichenow, 1897 - Humid forests of southern Cameroon and Gabon; Bioko.
jamesoni Sharpe, 1890 - Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, extreme southern South Sudan, Uganda, western Kenya, and extreme north-western Tanzania.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet