Lagonosticta rubricata
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The African firefinch (Lagonosticta rubricata), also called the blue-billed firefinch, is a common species of estrildid finch found in many parts of Africa. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 5,400,000 km2 (2,100,000 mi2).
The African firefinch was formally described in 1823 by the German naturalist Hinrich Lichtenstein. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla rubricata. Lichtenstein gave the locality as "terra Caffrorum". This has been restricted to the town of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The specific epithet rubricata is from Latin rubricatus meaning "orange-red" or "ruddy". The African firefinch is now placed in the genus Lagonosticta that was introduced in 1851 by Jean Cabanis. An alternative common name for this species is the blue-billed firefinch.
Five subspecies are recognised. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freetown | 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | |
| 2 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 3 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Firefinch sighting in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, based on 54 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 177th most-seen of the 283 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report an African Firefinch in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March, May–June and November, the lowest months. That is one of uMkhuze Game Reserve's wettest months, with about 80 mm of rain against 15 mm in July.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African Firefinch sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 30 parks where we can rate African Firefinch sightings, uMkhuze Game Reserve ranks 4th at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (South Africa, about 10%), Ruaha National Park (Tanzania, about 10%) and Mikumi National Park (Tanzania, about 10%).
Same genus: Lagonosticta
The closest relatives of the African Firefinch that you can see in uMkhuze Game Reserve (genus Lagonosticta, Firefinches) are Red-billed Firefinch (about 20%) and Jameson's Firefinch (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Firefinch is recorded against all the birds logged in uMkhuze Game Reserve (54 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.
