Yellow-rumped Seedeater

Serinus reichenowi

Other Names

  Kenya Yellow-rumped Seedeater   Serin de Reichenow           Beccasemi groppagialla del Kenya

World: East Africa in nc, c Tanzania, Kanya, southern Somalia, se Ethiopia, ne Uganda, se Sudan.

Kenya: Mostly absent from the arid N and NE. Fairly common in low,dry scrubby areas.

Found in small to large flocks feeding inconspicuously in roadside weeds. They can also be seen in numbers at water holes. As their name suggests they are primarily seed eaters but they also take insects particularly termite nymphs (as with the bird pictured above). They are mostly inconspicuous blending well into the dry background in their favoured habitat but the yellow rump is conspicuous and quite striking in the air particularly when a whole flock is startled into flight.