Tweet of the Day

Thanks to Wayne, a friend and keen ornithologist, I now know the names of two small birds that I see everyday:

The Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu Finches (Uraeginthus bengalus) - also known as Red-cheeked Blue Waxbills, Uganda or Abyssinian Red-cheeked Cordon-bleus - are beautiful, small African finches with bright red cheeks (hence their common name) and the most vibrant turquoise blue pummage on their breasts.  I have now learnt that they are found in the drier regions of tropical sub-Saharan Africa.  The natural range of the red-cheeked cordon-bleu stretches from south western Mauritania south through the countries of Senegal, Gambia east through southern Mali, southern Niger in Western Africa; through southern Chad and southern Sudan in Central Africa, east through Ethiopia, north western and south western Somalia in East Africa, south to the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and eastern Angola, east to northern and western Zambia, southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique in southern Africa.

The African Pied Wagtails (Motacilla aguimp) are black and white plumaged birds found in Africa.

These insect-eating birds occur naturally across most of Sub-Saharan Africa.  They inhabit subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, rivers, and, occasionally, freshwater marshes.