Uraeginthus granatinus
Silhouette: Jim Bendon (photography) and T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
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 Moremi Game Reserve on a given day, based on 27 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 236th most-seen of the 334 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Violet-eared Waxbill in Moremi Game Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March to January, the lowest months. That is one of Moremi Game Reserve's wettest months, with about 110 mm of rain against almost none in May.
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.
7th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Violet-eared Waxbill sightings, Moremi Game Reserve ranks 7th 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%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Violet-eared Waxbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Moremi Game Reserve (27 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.
