Common Waxbill

How to identify

Field marks

1. Adult: red bill like sealing wax
2. A red stripe through the eye
3. Gray-rufous feathers with fine dark brown barring
4. Cheeks and throat whitish

Male, female and young

The female is paler, with less red on the belly; the juvenile has a black bill, almost no red on the belly and fainter barring.

Voice

Calls include trills and buzzing notes, with a distinctive high-pitched note in flight.

Where and when it's recorded

Common Waxbill has been recorded at 790 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 50 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Lezíria Grande de Vila Franca de Xira – área geralPortugal3,299 records
2. Paul do Cabo da PraiaPortugal1,757 records
3. Paul da BarrocaPortugal1,684 records

Countries and regions with the most records

PortugalSpainSouth AfricaBrazilKenyaSingaporeUgandaNamibia

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The common waxbill (Estrilda astrild), also known as the St Helena waxbill, is a small passerine bird belonging to the estrildid finch family. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa but has been introduced to many other regions of the world and now has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 10,000,000 km2. It is popular and easy to keep in captivity.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

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