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Australian Wildlife

  Painted Firetail (Emblema pictum)





Painted Firetail | Emblema pictum photo
Emblema picta - male

Image by William Kreijkes - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)







PAINTED FIRETAIL FACTS

Description
The Painted Firetail is a beautiful finch. It is brown above, and underside is black with white spots. The face and the rump are bright scarlet red. The bill is red with blue spot at base of lower mandible. The female is duller with less red on face and throat, and larger white spots on sides. Immatures have little red on the face and a brown rump.

Other Names
Painted Finch

Size
10-12cm

Habitat
rugged spinifex country such as gorges, rocky areas, also found in dense scrub

Food
Feeds on the ground mainly on seeds. Also eats insects and their larvae.

Breeding
Builds small globular nest with wide opening and no entrance tunnel. Nest is made of twig, roots, grasses, lined with plant down. Usually built on platform of bark in spinifex grass less than a metre above ground. Lays 3-5 white eggs.

Range
arid regions of western Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia

distribution map showing range of Emblema pictum in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.



Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Estrildidae
Genus:Emblema
Species:pictum
Common Name:Painted Firetail