Village Indigobird ( Vidua chalybeata, family: Viduidae)

Birds & Birding in the Kruger National Park South Africa. In Roberts 6 this bird was called Steelblue Widowfinch

village indigo bird kruger national park birds The Village Indigobird (Latin name Vidua chalybeata) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 867 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 1076 also a picture of the Village Indigobird on page 1072. The Village Indigobird belongs to the family of birds classified as Viduidae. According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology the Village Indigobird is also known by these other names: Combassou,Senegal Combassou, Senegal Indigobird, Red-billed Firefinch Indigobird, Senegal Indigofinch, Indigobird, South African Indigobird, Green Indigobird.

In the previous edition of Roberts (ie 6th edition) the Village Indigobird was called the Steelblue Widowfinch

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Village Indigobird is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a common resident

In terms of distribution of the Village Indigobird in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Village Indigobird : see above distribution map.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

One of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size. For example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The Village Indigobird is an extremely small bird about half the size of a house sparrow. The height of the Village Indigobird is about 12 cms and its weight is about 12 gms

You will find that the male Village Indigobird plumage and colours are different to that of the female Village Indigobird

  • Head is black.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is pink.
  • Throat is white.
  • Back is black.
  • Legs are orange.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Village Indigobird feeds on the ground mainly

Invertebrates

Seeds

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Village Indigobird takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Village Indigobird is to use the nest of another bird. The surrogate family then raise the chicks. The bird lays eggs which are white in colour and number between 1 to 3

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Village Indigobird are: grasslands . The Village Indigobird is also at home in wetland and bushveld areas.

You can expect to see Village Indigobird in flocks, or pairs or as single birds.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Staalblouvinkie

German ... Rotschnabel-Atlaswitwe

Portuguese ... Viva-azul

French ... Combassou du Sngal

Dutch ... Staalvink

First bird in list | Previous bird viewed | Next KNP bird | Last bird in list

For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 867

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za