African Quailfinch © pinterest.com

Vagrant to Niger, Somalia.

Subspecies often treated as comprising two or three separate species, one consisting of nominate subspecies, ansorgei and ugandae, one comprising black-chinned subspecies gabonensis, fuscata and dorsostriata, and one containing white-spectacled fuscocrissa, muelleri, digressa, smithersi and pallida. Such treatment supported by studies of mitochondrial genes, which indicate that these groups form three separate clades, with "gabonensis group" and "fuscocrissa group" more closely related to each other than either is to "atricollis group". On other hand, subspecies intergrade in facial pattern, and groups do not form genetically monophyletic lineages, do not differ in vocalizations, in bill colour when breeding, or in nestling mouth markings and colours. Treatment as a single species considered preferable, pending further study. Proposed subspecies minuscula (described from upper Zambezi at Balovale, in Zambia), intermediate in plumage between fuscata and muelleri, and bradfieldi (from Okahandja, in Namibia), mostly paler than latter, are both synonymized with muelleri.

The following 11 subspecies are recognised:

• atricollis (Vieillot, 1817)   -  Southern Mauritania, Senegal (except Casamance) and southern Mali east to Nigeria, south-western Chad and Cameroon.
• ansorgei Ogilvie-Grant, 1910   -  South-western Gambia, southern Senegal (Casamance), Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone east, discontinuously, along coast to Togo.
• ugandae van Someren, 1921   -  Southern Sudan, Uganda and western Kenya.
• fuscocrissa Heuglin, 1863   -  Eritrea and Ethiopia. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, African Quailfinch (Ortygospiza fuscocrissa).
• gabonensis Lynes, 1914   -  Gabon east to central DRCongo. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Black-chinned Quailfinch (Ortygospiza gabonensis).
• fuscata Sclater, WL, 1932   -  Northern Angola, southern DRCongo and north-western Zambia. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Black-chinned Quailfinch (Ortygospiza gabonensis).
• dorsostriata van Someren, 1921   -  Eastern DRCongo east to southern and western Uganda. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Black-chinned Quailfinch (Ortygospiza gabonensis).
• muelleri Zedlitz, 1911   -  Southern Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Namibia and Botswana. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of African Quailfinch (Ortygospiza fuscocrissa).
• smithersi Benson, 1955   -  North-eastern Zambia. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of African Quailfinch (Ortygospiza fuscocrissa).
• pallida Roberts, 1932   -  Northern Botswana. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of African Quailfinch (Ortygospiza fuscocrissa).
• digressa Clancey, 1958   -  Eastern Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and north, eastern and south-western South Africa. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of African Quailfinch (Ortygospiza fuscocrissa).

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