COMMON GRENADIER

(Uraeginthus granatina)

di Enzo Patanè

"Allevamento Agata"

Scientific name: Uraeginthus granatina
Italian name: Granatino comune

The common granadier it is the much rarest in the Italian breedings that your cousins violet-eared while it is most common in the breedings of the Europe north, especially in Belgium. The male is less striking of the violet-eared, but in the complex he probably turns out more elegant of the cousins also thanks to the silk livery

DISTRIBUTION

Part south-west of Angola, Zambia leaves southern of the Zimbabwe. South Africa and Namibia. It's a common bird inside of the South Africa. As the violet-eared cousins is enough timid and very rarely she is approached to human takeovers preferring the dense spots of acacia.

DESCRIPTION

It's a bird long around to 14 cm. The adult male has cheeks violette, the forehead, under tail and rump blue intense , the black throat and the tail. Tawny head and wings rust and black tail. Spout and eyes-ring red.

The female have the same livery of the male but all the colors more are diluted and less intense. The throat is color chamois. Also in the violet-eared, the sex of the young is determinable a lot prematurely by the cheek of the males that assumes one coloration more violet intense than that of the females.

MAINTENANCE AND FEEDING

It's more delicate of the cousins with which it shares all the alimentary and riproduttive habits.

COMPATIBILITY

Also being an aggressive bird, it is less of the cousins and, if lodged in wide cages, it can cohabit with other species of waxbills, exception for other pair of the same species.