Bar-breasted Firefinch (Lagonosticta rufopicta) [XC719770]
by Andrew Spencer from Rainforest Lodge, nr. Kakum National Park, Twifo, Central, Ghana (call)
Bar-breasted Firefinch (Lagonosticta) [XC278380]
by Bram Piot from Gibe Gorge, Ethiopia (call)
Subspecies
Bar-breasted Firefinch (Lagonosticta rufopicta) and Brown Firefinch (Lagonosticta nitidula) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) are retained as separate species contra Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993) who include nitidula as a subspecies of Bar-breasted Firefinch (Lagonosticta rufopicta).
Forms a superspecies with Brown Firefinch (Lagonosticta nitidula), and sometimes considered conspecific.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
rufopicta (Fraser, 1843) - Senegal, Gambia, south-western Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone east to Nigeria, Cameroon, southern Chad and Central African Republic.
lateritia Heuglin, 1864 - Southern Sudan, north-eastern DRCongo, western Ethiopia, Uganda and south-western Kenya.