Cuckoo-Finch

The cuckoo-finch, also known as the parasitic weaver and cuckoo weaver is the last of the four species of Viduidae I encountered in Uganda. We were in Kidepo Valley NP with our guide William and ranger Zachary, near the small Apoka airfield when Zachary called our attention to a small yellow-bird ahead of us standing in the weeds. He said it was an important bird and I should remember it. So I took lots of photos. The cuckoo-finch lays its eggs in the nests of cisticolas and prinias. The young cuckoo-finch is raised by its host and the host's own young usually disappear but have been known to survive. 

The cuckoo-finch has a short tail and short stubby bill. The upper mandible is laterally compressed, the culmen (the dorsal ridge of the upper mandible) is ridged and straight, the lower mandible is bulbous and deeper than the upper mandible. The male in breeding plumage, which is what I saw, has streaked black above, bright yellow with fine dark streaks below, and a black bill. I won't go into the female or male in non-breeding plumage, as I did not see them.  

Illustration of a female cuckoo-finch from Birds of the World. I did not see a female, but the male/female contrast needs to be shown. 

Range of the cuckoo-finch from Birds of the World. 

There are two subspecies listed in Birds of the World with no information about the differences between them. The given ranges of the two subspecies do not mention Uganda, but ssp. butleri lists South Sudan which is very close to Kidepo Valley NP and probably the ssp. I saw. It is widespread, but uncommon and local. The patchy distribution prevents making reasonable population estimates. 

Village Indigobird

The family Viduidae is made up of whydahs, indigobirds and the cuckoo finch. I'd never even heard of any of these birds before this summer, but after our visit to Uganda in July I've now seen four of the twenty species in the family. This post is on the village indigobird, 1 of 10 indigo bird species, I've previously posted on the eastern paradise and pin-tailed whydahs, 2 of the 9 whydah species, and my next post will be on the cuckoo finch. All of these species are brood parasites which lay their eggs in the nests of songbirds so that their young are raised by the songbirds. 

The village indigobird is a songbird which is a resident of most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. It is mostly seen near villages which gives it its name. It usually lays its eggs in the nest of the red-billed firefinch. 

I got a photo of a red-billed firefinch near Nkima Forest Lodge above the Mabamba Swamp near Entebbe, Uganda. It is a beautiful tiny bird which I believe is much smaller than the village indigobird. 

The village indigobird's eggs are white, like the red-billed firefinch, but are slightly larger. The indigobird does not destroy the eggs of the firefinch and the male often mimics the song of the red-billed firefinch.

There are six subspecies of village indigobird. This is an illustration of the ssp. V. c. nuemanni from Birds of the World. They did not have an illustration of the ssp. centralis which is what I believe I saw. Centralis is found in the DRC from around the west sides of Lake's Albert, Edward, Kivu and Tanganyika, east to Uganda, inland Kenya and inland Tanzania. 

I saw the above village indigobirds at the Savannah Lodge near Kidepo Valley NP while I was sitting out on the porch late one afternoon. Note the fourth photo, shows it near its cousin, an eastern paradise whydah. The male of the nominate ssp in breeding plumage is black with green to a steel-blue gloss, upperwing and tail are black to dark brown, underwing coverts are dark gray or black, a dark brown iris, white bill, light orange to bright reddish orange legs and feet. The non-breeding male looks similar to a female, see illustration below, which I'll not go into as I don't have a photo of a female or non-breeding male. Ssp. Centralis, which I saw is glossed blue with dark brown wings which matches the birds I saw. 

Illustration of the female village indigobird from Birds of the World. 

Range of the village indigobird from Birds of the World. 

Pin-Tailed Whydah

The pin-tailed whydah is not nearly as spectacular as its cousin, the eastern paradise whydah, but it still has an amazingly long tail and a brightly colored red bill. I saw it twice in Murchison Falls NP in Uganda. The first time it was standing in the top of a tree and I got one blurry photo as it was taking off. The second time was outside the cafeteria at the Pakuba Lodge, up above the outlet of Lake Albert. I got two photos of it in the grass. 

Pin-tailed whydah illustration of a breeding male from Birds of the World.

The breeding male has a black crown, back and tail; dark brown wings with white patches; white underparts and head, aside from the crown; and a red bill.  

Illustration of a female pin-tailed whydah from Birds of the World.

The female and non-breeding male have streaked brown upperparts; whitish underparts with buff flanks; and a buff and black face pattern. 

Range of the pin-tailed whydah from Birds of the World. It is found in much of sub-Saharan Africa, favoring savannah, scrub and grasslands.  

Eastern Chanting Goshawk

Updated: September 14, 2025.  I just got back from a trip to Uganda in July 2025 and I'm updating my goshawk posts. I originally did a post on this bird, dated July 21, 2014, and referred to it as a pale chanting goshawk. On iNaturalist three reviewers disagreed and indicated it was an eastern chanting goshawk. Somehow I conflated the terms and referred to it in my post as an eastern pale chanting goshawk which was incorrect, although Wikipedia included an aka as eastern (pale) chanting goshawk because for awhile it was considered as subspecies of the pale chanting goshawk and was then named as a separate species. 

In Buffalo Springs National Reserve in Kenya we encountered an eastern chanting goshawk standing in the top of a thorny acacia tree, identified for us by Stephen, our guide and land cruiser driver. I have heard the term goshawk since a youth and have always thought of it as an exotic raptor, one that I had never previously encountered. Now, there before us, was a pretty ordinary looking raptor with this exotic name. What is a goshawk and how is a goshawk different from some other kind of hawk? 

It turns out that there are about 18 species of goshawk and they are grouped in the genus Accipiter with about 19 species of sparrowhawk, as well as some other raptors such as the sharp-shinned hawk and Cooper's hawk, birds I am familiar with. These raptors are slender with short broad rounded wings and a long tail, long legs and long sharp talons and a sharp hooked bill. They are distinguished by the lack of a procoracoid foramen, which has something to do with the shoulder assembly. Enough of that. 

Eastern chanting goshawk in Buffalo Springs NR. Photo by Judy.

The eastern chanting goshawk is also known as the Somali chanting goshawk. As I get more familiar with the African animals, I am struck by how many are identified by the term "Somali." I don't think I've run into any animals known as "Ethiopian" or "Kenyan" or "Tanzanian" or "Ugandan," etc. But several "Somali." This goshawk is found in southern Ethiopia, Djibouti, western Somalia, eastern Kenya, northeastern Tanzania and Uganda. It has a gray head, neck, breast and upperparts, except for white or lightly barred uppertail coverts. The belly has narrow gray and white bars. The upper portion of the bill (the cere) is yellow, the legs are orange/red and the eyes are dark brown. 

Illustration of eastern chanting goshawk from Birds of the World.

Range of eastern chanting goshawk from Birds of the World.

Silver Pale Chanting Goshawk

Updated on September 14, 2025. We visited Uganda in July 2025 and I'm looking at and updating my goshawk posts. I had this bird labeled as a southern pale chanting goshawk, posted on August 19, 2018, which I'm not sure made any sense, it doesn't now; and based on iNaturalist results I'm shifting the identification to a silver pale chanting goshawk ssp. argentior.

I saw it in Etosha NP in Namibia on January 8, 2015. 

It has gray upperparts with a white rump. The outer tail feathers are barred gray and white. The head and upper chest are pale gray and the rest of the underparts are finely barred in dark gray and white. The bill is red at the base and dark gray at the tip. The cere, facial skin and legs are also red. 

Silver pale chanting goshawk.

 

Pale chanting goshawk illustration from Birds of the World.

Subspecies argentior (silver) is found from southwestern Angola south and east through Namibia, Botswana and southwestern Zimbabwe to northern South Africa.

Pale chanting goshawk range from Birds of the World.

Eastern Paradise Whydah

My granddaughter and I were with our guides, William and ranger Zachary, in Kidepo Valley NP in northeastern Uganda, near the border of South Sudan. We were traveling on a rutted and muddy dirt road in the Narus Valley toward the Kidepo Valley, when Zachary pointed excitedly to a very long-tailed bird standing in the top of a tree behind us and proclaimed it to be an eastern paradise whydah. After I got a few photos, it flew, tail dangling below it in the sky, closer to us, but still behind us on the side of the road. I was excitedly taking photos and urging William to back up so I could get closer, as a huge cargo truck heading for South Sudan appeared behind us, with many South Sudanese riding on top. William did not want it to get in front of us, as they'd been hard to pass earlier, so he sped ahead, much to my frustration. I'd just seen one of the most unique birds I'd ever seen and it was disappearing behind us as I helplessly watched on.

This blurry photo is the whydah taking flight. As it flew further, the tail dropped and hung below it at a near 90 degree angle. 

The name really stuck with me because I'd heard it before, researching the life of my third great grandfather who was an English ship captain in the slave trade in the 1790s. I've read a fair amount of slave trade literature and there was a Kingdom of Whydah in what is now Benin, where the current city of Ouidah, same name, different spelling, now exists, which was involved in the slave trade. 

Two days later, still in Kidepo Valley NP, we had some time in the afternoon at our cottage near the Savannah Lodge. I was sitting outside in a chair, with my camera, on a small elevated patio, when an eastern paradise whydah landed on the ground right below me and started foraging for seeds. I was so excited I could not believe my eyes. The same kind of bird that had disappeared prematurely two days before had suddenly reappeared before my eyes and was begging to be photographed. So I obliged. 

Next to these exotic, brilliant birds, were some pretty non-descript birds that I photographed, thinking it was another species. Later on, as I looked the eastern paradise whydah up on Merlin, I discovered that I was looking at a female of the same species. That blew me away. I'd have never guessed it. 

That, by the way, is close to what the male looks like when it is not in breeding plumage. To acknowledge that I was happy to be here and see a male in breeding plumage is a vast understatement. 

William, our guide, stopped by the cottage and asked if I wanted to walk the grounds with him looking for birds. Of course I did. So not too far distant from our cottage I saw another eastern paradise whydah fly from a tree down to the ground in front of us, while another stood in a large tree nearby. 

This is a lot of photos, I know, but I'll probably never see another one and I want to record it so that I can relive this wonderful experience again and again. This is called Christmas in July, wrapped in a big, very long, bulging ribbon. 

An illustration of a breeding male from Birds of the World. 

An illustration of a female from Birds of the World. 

A range map from Birds of the World. Its distribution includes southeastern South Sudan and northeastern Uganda, without going into greater detail about other parts of its range.  

The breeding male has black head, upperparts, undertail coverts, tail and bill; blackish legs; golden yellow nape; maroon chestnut upper breast; a paler chestnut lower breast; and a pale buff belly. The female has a whitish central crown stripe bordered by a blackish streak; a pale supercilium; a blackish crescent mark from behind the eye around the ear coverts; bill is dark gray with the lower mandible a lighter color.