Uraeginthus granatinus
Silhouette: Jim Bendon (photography) and T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The violet-eared waxbill or common grenadier (Granatina granatina) is a common species of estrildid finch found in drier land of Southern Africa. The violet-eared waxbill was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Fringilla granatina. Linnaeus took the specific epithet from the earlier description by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson who in 1760 had used the French name Le Grenadin and the Latin Granatinus, meaning "grenadier" in English. Linnaeus mistakenly specified the locality as Brazil. This was an error originally introduced by the English naturalist George Edwards in 1743 who had believed that his specimen had come from Brazil. The locality was amended to Angola by William Lutley Sclater in 1930 and restricted to Huíla Province in Angola by Phillip Clancey in 1959. The violet-eared waxbill is now placed in the genus Granatina that was introduced in 1890 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe. The species is treated as monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
It is found in subtropical/ tropical (lowland) dry shrubland and savanna... Wikipedia →
Recording0:20
Botswana · 2020
© Dewald du Plessis · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pilanesberg National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Waterberg Plateau Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 3 | Etosha National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 4 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 5 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 6 | Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 8 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Violet-eared Waxbill sighting in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 106th most-seen of the 122 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Violet-eared Waxbill in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season. May has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Violet-eared Waxbill 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 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Violet-eared Waxbill sightings, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Pilanesberg National Park (South Africa, about 40%), Waterberg Plateau Park (Namibia, about 30%) and Etosha National Park (Namibia, about 20%).
Same family: Estrildidae
The closest relatives of the Violet-eared Waxbill that you can see in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (family Estrildidae, Waxbills and Allies) are Red-headed Finch (about 40%) and Black-faced Waxbill (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Violet-eared Waxbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (16 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
