Purple Grenadier
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Order: Passeriformes
Family: Estrildidae

[Photo] Purple Grenadier (Uraeginthus ianthinogaster). de: Veilchenastrild im Zoo Frankfurt. Photograph: Petra Karstedt (www.Tiermotive.de). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Veilchenastrild-02.jpg

The Purple Grenadier (Uraeginthus ianthinogaster) is a common species of estrildid finch found in eastern Africa.

Description
The length averages 13.3 cm (5.25 in). All ages and sexes have a black tail, and adults have a red bill. The male has a cinnamon-colored head and neck with a blue patch surrounding the eye. The rump is purplish blue and the underparts are violet-blue with variable rufous patches. The female is smaller and mostly cinnamon brown with white barring on the underparts and silver-blue eyepatches. Juveniles are like females, but mostly unbarred tawny-brown with a reddish-brown bill.

The song (in Kenya) is described as "a high, thin chit-cheet tsereea-ee-ee tsit-tsit, or cheerer cheet tsee-tsee sur-chit."

Range and habitat
It is found in subtropical and tropical (lowland) dry shrubland in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,500,000 km². The status of the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Grenadier

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