DE: Zweifarbenschwarzling, NL: Bruinborstastrilde, FR: Nigrette à ventre roux,
ES: Negro de Pinzón Pecho Castaño, IT: Nigrita pettocastano, PT: Negrinha de peito castanho,
DK: Brunbrystet Skovastrild, SW: Tvåfärgad negerfink, NO: Kastanjeastrild, FI: Tervapeippo,
PL: Nigrita rdzawobrzucha, CZ: Cernoušek hnedoprsý, HU: Kétszínű négerpint
Nigrita bicolor
Nigrita bicolor bicolor
Nigrita b. brunnescens
Origin: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Angola, Centr. Afr. Rep., Congo, Dem. Repl. Congo (Zaïre), Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi
Length: ca. 11 cm.
The male is dark brown and the female chestnut brown.
Chestnut-breasted Negro-finch (male)
Chestnut-breasted Negro-finch (female)
Food: Nigritas are the only members of the family Estrildidae that eat no seeds, or hardly any. They feed on all kinds of insects, including caterpillars, small insects, and eggs of the tree frog, which they find in the calyx of bromelias. Furthermore, they may eat specific fruits, often eating palm fruits, which are rich in vegetal oils and carotene.
A solitary bird. Only when searching for food will it, though not very often, associate with others of its own species. Sometimes also with other negro-finches. Not until the breeding season approaches do they form pairs. When they are grown up, the young have to look for a territory of their own. The author once had three couples in large breeding cages, male and female usualy being separated from each other by a plastic partition. It is evident that the female determinates the territory, for outside the breeding period the males were chased away in all cases.
Nest Chestnut-breasted Negrofinches in nestbox
Chestnut-breasted Negrofinches – Young import (2006)
Chestnut-breasted Negrofinches – Adult pair (female front)