Zebra Waxbill

The Orange-breasted Waxbill or Zebra Waxbill (Amandava subflava) 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 lacks the male's red eyebrow.

The Orange-breasted Waxbill is found in grassland and savannas 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 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 as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix III of CITES in Ghana.

• A male, photographed at Cedara farm, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa