Black-faced Waxbill (Estrilda erythronotos) [XC314017]
by id from Borakalalo NP, North West, South Africa (song)
Black-faced Waxbill (Estrilda erythronotos) [XC779429]
by Charles Hesse from Schoemansdrift Bridge (near Vredefort), Fezile Dabi District Municipality, Free State, South Africa (alarm call, call, flight call, mainly gender-specific loud contact calls)
Subspecies
Sometimes placed in a monotypic genus, Brunhilda, but such treatment seems unwarranted. Pinkish-bellied subspecies charmosyna and kiwanukae often considered to represent a separate species, distinct from darker-bellied nominate and delamerei. However, variation is apparently clinal, with belly colour becoming darker from north to south, and no differences in vocalizations or nestling appearance. Reported sympatry of the two groups in southern Kenya not confirmed, and, in any event, some birds might have been non-breeding migrants or wanderers.
Proposed subspecies pallidior (described from northern Guaso, on R Nyiro, in Kenya) is considered to be inseparable from charmosyna, and soligena (from Otjomassu Sandfield, in central Namibia) is synonymized with nominate.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
charmosyna (Vieillot, 1817) - Southern Sudan, Ethiopia, southern Somalia, north-eastern Uganda and eastern Kenya. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Black-cheeked Waxbill (Estrilda charmosyna).
delamerei Sharpe, 1900 - South-western Uganda, south-western Kenya and western and central Tanzania.
kiwanukae van Someren, 1919 - South-eastern Kenya and northern Tanzania.
erythronotos (Vieillot, 1817) - Southern Angola, south-western Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, northern Zimbabwe and northern South Africa (Limpopo south to northern Cape and western Free State).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet