Gold-Breasted Waxbill
Description
The Gold-breasted Waxbill is also know as Goldbreast or Golden-breasted Waxbill or Orange-breasted Waxbill or Orangebreast or Zebra Waxbill
The Goldbreasted Waxbill has 2 subspecies:
A. s. sublfava - The northern subspecies, from Senegal to Ethiopia
A. s. clarkei - The southern subspecies--"South African Gold-breasted", "Giant Golden-breasted" or "Clarke's Waxbill"--from Gabon to southern Kenya southward
Other reported latin names include: Fringilla subflava and Sporaeginthus subflavus
Red beak, red or orange-red irides, olive back and wings, olive flanks with yellow or buff bars, bright yellow underbelly, red rump, black tail, pale brown legs. Cocks also sport a red eye stripe. The northern subspecies has fiery orange color on the breast and belly which the southern subspecies tends to lack, although some A. s. clarkei cocks may still have an orange or orange-red patch in the center of the upper breast.
Juveniles are much duller in appearance than adults: buff-brown above, dull buff underparts with a wash of yellow on the breast center, unbarred flanks, orange-tinged rump and uppertail coverts. Brown eyes, black bill.
Mutations include: pied (splashes of white feathers) and yellow (in Australia, bird is largely yellow in color but retains red and orange coloring); a fawn bird may have been spotted in the wild.
The hen is duller overall than the cock and lacks the red stripe over the eyes. The cock on the right in the below graphic is of the A. s. sublfava subspecies (lots of orange on the breast/belly).
Scientific Name
Amandava Subflava
Country Of Origin
Africa
Size
Life Expectancy
Noise Level
Talk / Trick Ability
Characteristics
The impossibly tiny and colorful gold-breasted waxbill is a real avian treasure. Gold-breasted waxbills had been classified as a threatened species in the past but their numbers have recovered and they are now available to bird keepers worldwide. Gold-breasted waxbills are beautiful and peaceful, which makes them perfect for aviaries with a number of finches in the,m. Because they are so small, aviaries must have ½ by ½-inch wire minimum. For cages, 3/8- inch bar spacing is recommended to prevent gold-breasted waxbills from escaping.
Behavior / Health Concerns
Gold-breasted waxbills are tough for their size and rarely incur major health issues of any kind. They don’t require any special considerations as far as heat, and acclimated birds can live outdoors in some regions of the United States.
Gold-breasted waxbills are a long-lived species with some individuals reaching their mid-teens. In nature, gold-breasted waxbills spend most of their lives foraging up and down rough grass stalks looking for seeds. This constant abrasion keeps their nails short, but in captivity gold-breasted waxbills need regular nail trimming. Gold-breasted waxbills are equally at home in cages or aviaries and are sometimes very good breeders if given the chance. Juvenile gold-breasted waxbills look like females, except that young males have a red eye stripe at the fledgling stage, which makes sexing easy. Gold-breasted waxbills males get more colorful with each successive molt, and mature birds are very striking with no two looking exactly alike.
Expert Advice
“In Europe, gold-breasted waxbills are referred to as zebra waxbills because of their striped flanks. Gold-breasted waxbillss have a long reproductive life which can exceed 10 years. Gold-breasted waxbills can potentially interbreed with fire finches and these species should not be housed together for this reason.”
— Karl Lieberman