Oriole finch explained

The oriole finch (Linurgus olivaceus) is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is found in Africa and is native to Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. It lives in subtropical or tropical moist evergreen montane forests.

The male has a black head, a yellow body, black flight feathers and a stout bright yellow-orange conical bill. The female is a dull greenish-olive but has black flight feathers and a yellow bill. ^[1]

The oriole finch was formally described in 1843 by the British zoologist Louis Fraser under the binomial name Coccothraustes olivaceus.^{[2] [3]} It is now the only species placed in the genus Linurgus that was introduced by Ludwig Reichenbach in 1850.^[4] The exact relationship of this species to other finches is unclear. In their phylogenetic analysis published in 2012, Zuccon and colleagues found that the oriole finch was sister to the genus Serinus.^[5] This contrasts with an earlier 2009 analysis by Nguembock and colleagues which found that the oriole finch was sister to the genus Carduelis.^[6]

Four subspecies are recognised:^[4]

• L. o. olivaceus (Fraser, 1843) — Cameroon line
• L. o. prigoginei Schouteden, 1950 — Albertine Rift montane forests
• L. o. elgonensis van Someren, 1918 — Imatong Mountains, Kenya and Uganda
• L. o. kilimensis (Reichenow & Neumann, 1895) — northern Malawi and Tanzania

Notes and References

1. Book: Clement . Peter . Harris . Alan . Davis . John . Finches and Sparrows . Princeton University Press . 1993 . Princeton, New Jersey . 210–211 . 0-691-03424-9.
2. Fraser . Louis . Louis Fraser . 1842 . Coccothraustes olivaceus . Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . 10 . 144 . The volume is dated 1842 on the title page but the article was published in 1843.
3. Book: Paynter . Raymond A. Jnr. . 1968 . Check-list of Birds of the World, Volume 14 . Museum of Comparative Zoology . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 232 .
4. Web site: Gill . Frank . Donsker . David . Finches, euphonias . World Bird List Version 5.2. International Ornithologists' Union. 5 June 2015 .
5. Zuccon . Dario . Prŷs-Jones . Robert . Rasmussen . Pamela C. . Ericson . Per G.P. . 2012 . The phylogenetic relationships and generic limits of finches (Fringillidae) . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 62 . 2 . 581–596 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2011.10.002 . 22023825.
6. Nguembock . B. . Fjeldså . J. . Couloux . A. . Pasquet . E. . 2009 . Molecular phylogeny of Carduelinae (Aves, Passeriformes, Fringillidae) proves polyphyletic origin of the genera Serinus and Carduelis and suggests redefined generic limits . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 51 . 2 . 169–181 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2008.10.022 . 19027082.