Uraeginthus bengalus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The red-cheeked cordon-bleu or red-cheeked cordonbleu (Uraeginthus bengalus) is a small passerine bird in the family Estrildidae. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in drier regions of tropical Sub-Saharan Africa. Red-cheeked cordon-bleu has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 7,700,000 km2.
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the red-cheeked cordon-bleu in his Ornithologie based on a specimen that he mistakenly believed had been collected in Bengal. He used the French name Le Bengali and the Latin Bengalus. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the red-cheeked cordon-bleu. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Fringilla bengalus and cited Brisson's work. The specific name bengalus is based on the erroneous belief that the species came from Bengal. The type location was... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 2 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Akagera National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 4 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Meru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 10 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 11 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 12 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 13 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 14 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 15 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 16 | Lake Manyara National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 17 | Aberdare National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 18 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 19 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 20 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 21 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 22 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 23 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 3 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 4 | N'Djamena | 🇹🇩 Chad | |
| 5 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 6 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 7 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 8 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 9 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 10 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Nuremberg Zoo | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 28 in Nürnberg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Kano Zoo | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 5 | Granby Zoo | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Parc Zoologique et Botanique de Mulhouse | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Schönbrunn Zoo | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 9 | Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | Aquarium Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 11 | Birdworld Kuranda | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 12 | Bloedel Conservatory | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 13 | Kuranda Koala Gardens | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 14 | Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 12 in Nürnberg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 15 | Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 14 in Nürnberg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 16 | Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 6 in Nürnberg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 17 | Audu Bako Zoo | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 18 | Butterfly World | 🇺🇸 United States |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu sighting in Maiduguri on a given day, based on 66 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 23rd most-seen of the 65 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and July
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu in Maiduguri on a given day, against about 20% in September, the lowest month. Those are among Maiduguri's wettest months, with about 85 mm of rain a month against almost none in January. November has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 12
Of the 12 cities where we can rate Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu sightings, Maiduguri ranks 6th at about 40%. The best odds are in Mombasa (Kenya, about 70%), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 70%) and Serrekunda (Gambia, about 60%).
Same family: Estrildidae
The closest relatives of the Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu that you can see in Maiduguri (family Estrildidae, Waxbills and Allies) are Red-billed Firefinch (about 50%), Black-rumped Waxbill (about 20%) and African Silverbill (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu is recorded against all the birds logged in Maiduguri (66 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
