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.