Species group · Birds
WAnimals has 2 species of estrildid finch, in the family Estrildidae.
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 2.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 3 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
Its wild populations come with black, red or yellow heads.
From Gouldian Finch
Head colour is a genetic trait with social consequences: individuals prefer to pair with their own morph, and mixed pairs produce female offspring with lower survival, a case of genetic incompatibility within a single species.
From Gouldian Finch
The chicks have tubercles at the corners of the bill that catch the light like small phosphorescent beads, guiding the parents to their mouths inside the dark hollow of the nest.
From Gouldian Finch
Young males learn their song by copying an adult tutor during a critical window in development, and the process has become one of the most widely used scientific models for the study of vocal learning.
From Zebra Finch
It is the standard model for studying how speech is learnt: the chick memorises a tutor's song during a critical window and then practises it for weeks until it can reproduce it, a process with direct parallels to human babbling.
From Zebra Finch
The parents sing to the eggs when it is hot: chicks that hear that call hatch smaller and cope better with high temperatures, a documented case of prenatal programming by sound.
From Zebra Finch