As my guide, William, and I walked the hill between Nkima Forest Lodge and Mabamba Swamp, southwest of Entebbe, Uganda, we encountered some red-billed fire finches right off the dirt trail we were following. They were beautiful small red birds that flitted around a lot and were difficult to photograph. I took quite a few photos and only two are decent.
Firefinches are found in the genus Lagonosticta and there are ten species, all found in Africa. Ssp. reberrima is known as the Uganda red-billed firefinch and is found in the DRC, Uganda, west Kenya to northeast Angola, northeast Zambia and north Malawi.
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| Illustration of male firefinch, ssp. reberimma, from Birds of the World. |
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| Illustration of female red-billed firefinch from Birds of the World. |
They are about 3.9 inches in length. Their nests are parasitised by the
village indigobird which I also saw on our trip.
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| Range from Birds of the World. |
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