Black-and-white Mannikin (Spermestes bicolor) [XC294912]
by Mike Nelson from Arsi, Oromia, Ethiopia (call)
Black-and-white Mannikin (Spermestes bicolor) [XC206436]
by Rod Cassidy from Obala, Centre, Cameroon (call)
Subspecies
Black-and-white Mannikin (Spermestes bicolor) and Red-backed Mannikin (Lonchura nigriceps) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) are retained as separate species contra Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993) who include nigriceps as a subspecies of Black-and-white Mannikin (Spermestes bicolor).
Nominate subspecies and poensis intergrade in Cameroon, and poensis back colour varies clinally from black in west to brown in east. Birds in southern Sudan and eastern DRCongo intermediate between poensis and woltersi are sometimes treated as subspecies stigmatophora (from Bukoba, on L Victoria), but better included within poensis.
Proposed subspecies minor (from Fanole, in southern Somalia) is treated as a synonym of nigriceps.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
bicolor (Fraser, 1843) - Guinea-Bissau, southern Mali, southern Guinea and Sierra Leone east to southern Nigeria and Cameroon.
poensis (Fraser, 1843) - Bioko I (Fernando Póo) and southern Cameroon south to northern Angola, east to DRCongo (except north-eastern and south), southern Sudan, south-western Ethiopia, Uganda, western Kenya and north-western Tanzania.
woltersi (Schouteden, 1956) - South-eastern DRCongo and north-western Zambia.
nigriceps Cassin, 1852 - Southern Somalia, eastern Kenya and Tanzania south to Zambia, southern Mozambique and north-eastern and eastern South Africa. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Red-backed Mannikin (Lonchura nigriceps).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet