Amandava subflava
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The orange-breasted waxbill (Amandava subflava), also known as the zebra waxbill, is a small (approximately 9 cm long) sparrow-like bird with a reddish iris, orange breast, red bill and dark olive-green plumage. The male has a red rump, dark bars on the whitish flank and a scarlet eyebrow stripe. The female is duller and smaller than male; it also lacks the male's red eyebrow.
The orange-breasted waxbill is found in grassland and savannahs south of the Sahara in Africa. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 10,000,000 km2. This species is also introduced to other countries, e.g., Kuwait. Its diet consists mainly of seeds, insects and shoots. The female usually lays between four and six eggs in an oval-shaped nest made from grass. These nests are often the old nests of red-collared widowbirds.
Widespread and common throughout its large range, the orange-breasted waxbill is evaluated to be of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix III of CITES in Ghana. BirdLife International species factsheet
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wilhelma | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Halls Gap Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Birdworld Kuranda | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Kuranda Koala Gardens | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Orangebreast sighting in Nairobi National Park on a given day, based on 37 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 281st most-seen of the 371 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.
June and July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Orangebreast in Nairobi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August to May, the lowest months. Those are among Nairobi National Park's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain a month against 180 mm in April.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Orangebreast sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Orangebreast sightings, Nairobi National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Mikumi National Park (Tanzania, about 10%).
Same family: Estrildidae
The closest relatives of the Orangebreast that you can see in Nairobi National Park (family Estrildidae, Waxbills and Allies) are Red-billed Firefinch (about 50%), Purple Grenadier (about 50%) and Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Orangebreast is recorded against all the birds logged in Nairobi National Park (37 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.
