Vidua chalybeata
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The village indigobird (Vidua chalybeata), also known as the steelblue widowfinch or (in U.S. aviculture) the Combassou finch, is a small songbird belonging to the family Viduidae. It is distinguishable from other indigobird species by bill and leg colours, the colour tinge of the male's breeding plumage, song, and to lesser extent, the nestling's plumage and mouth pattern. The bill colour can be red or white depending on the population, and there is some regional variation in the colour tone of the male's plumage.
It is a resident breeding bird in most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. This indigobird is found in many open habitats including open woodland, scrub and cultivation, but, as its name implies, it is most readily seen near villages.
It is a brood parasite which lays its eggs in the nests of red-billed firefinches. Unlike the common cuckoo, it does not destroy the host's egg. Typically, 2-4 eggs are added to those already present. The eggs of both the host and the firefinch are white, although the indigobird's are slightly larger. The nestling indigobirds mimic the unique gape pattern of the fledglings of the host species... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 3 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 5 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | N'Djamena | 🇹🇩 Chad | |
| 7 | Lusaka | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 8 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 9 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 10 | Lilongwe | 🇲🇼 Malawi |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bird Kingdom | 🇨🇦 Canada |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Village Indigobird sighting in Ouagadougou on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 67th most-seen of the 86 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Village Indigobird in Ouagadougou on a given day, against about 10% in March–July, October and December, the lowest months. February, August and November have too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Village Indigobird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 15
Of the 15 cities where we can rate Village Indigobird sightings, Ouagadougou ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Mombasa (Kenya, about 20%), Abuja (Nigeria, about 20%) and Nairobi (Kenya, about 10%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Village Indigobird that you can see in Ouagadougou (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Common Bulbul (about 80%), Village Weaver (about 80%) and Yellow-crowned Gonolek (about 80%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Village Indigobird is recorded against all the birds logged in Ouagadougou (11 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.
