#pytilia

[herpsandbirds]

Green-winged Pytilia (Pytilia melba), male, family Estrildidae, order Passeriformes, Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa

photograph by Dr Manoj C Sindagi

[birdstudies]

July 31, 2024 - Orange-winged Pytilia or Golden-backed Pytilia (Pytilia afra) These estrildid finches are found in a scattered range across parts of southern and eastern Africa. They live in open woodlands, tall grass savannas, thickets, and cultivated areas. Foraging on the ground in pairs or small flocks, they feed on grass seeds and termites. They build ball-shaped nests with side entrances from grass and feathers where females lay three to five eggs.

[feliniakattus]

it is time to post aro mowana fic.

link here, full text under the cut.

Whimbrel licks Mowana across the back of her head, and Mowana stumbles as she turns to face her mama. 

‘Mowana, you were playing so nicely with Clover just then.’ Whimbrel purrs. ‘Do you like him?’

Mowana tilts her head so far she almost falls over. 

‘I don’t know, Mama.’

‘When you’re older, will we be hearing the pitter-patter of paws?’

Mowana shakes her head and shifts on her paws. ‘I don’t wanna partner, Mama. I’m never gonna join with anyone.’

Whimbrel exchanges a glance with Pytilia that brims with mirth. Her tail curls over her back as she purrs a reply.

‘We all say that, darling. I remember Mabuya saying exactly that and look at her now. Once you hit your 3’s… We’ll certainly see how it goes. It’s just our nature, sweetie.’

Mowana shuffles from paw to paw for a moment longer, until Pytilia purrs. 

‘Off you go.’

She is a lot more conscious of how she plays after that.

Mowana stares out into the black. The stars are like pinpricks of white light, and the moons shine down like bright eyes. The wind breezes past her face, pulling her mantle back and out of her eyes. She leans into it, closing her eyes slightly. 

She hears grass crunching and spins around, fur bushed.

Clover.

He grins sheepishly, with that way he has that she could tell other kattii might find attractive, and so she tells herself she does too. His brown pelt blends in almost perfectly with the night-dimmed grass. He steps through it with the ease of someone in his element. 

She tells herself she likes him for it.

‘Just wanted to see what you were up to,’ he says. His tail curls over his back. ‘No reason to pounce at me.’

‘Sorry. I’m not doing much,’ Mowana says, and shifts over so he can sit next to her. She feels the warmth of his flank at her side. He runs his muzzle over her ear, and Mowana tells herself that a proper molly would lean into his touch, so she does, ignoring the wave of … of something that makes her shiver. ‘Just looking at the moons.’

‘Mm.’ He smooths his tongue down the back of her head and between her shoulders. She twitches. It doesn’t feel exciting. It just feels flat. 

She can tell he’s enjoying it, from the way he pulls back and smiles with his top teeth showing, his body wriggling with affection, and she smiles back but she knows it isn’t the same. But this is what everyone wants from her. It will make her parents happy and surely they know what’s best for her? She’s just a late bloomer, and that’s why she’s never felt anything for Clover. 

But she is three, and surely this is just what love is like. She loves love, loves the idea of someone being devoted to her more than anything, loves the idea of quiet afternoons in the same nest, not even needing to speak. She loves the idea of being wanted by someone more than anything else. 

But she doesn’t love this she has to love this. Clover leans against her side with a chuff. Mowana leans into him and he pulls her to the ground and she lies with her back to his belly. His legs drape over her sides, a cage of bone and ticked brown fur and suddenly she needs to leave. 

Mowana tries to wriggle free but he rests his head on her shoulder and pins her in place. She closes her eyes. He loves you, she tells herself. You love him. This is what you should be doing. This is what everyone does. 

What you’re feeling is love.

Pytilia slips away before dawn. Mowana stays at the side of the body until the sun rises. She rests her head on her parent’s side. She cleans away the blood, a task that had seemed impossible at dusk, but was painfully easy now. The last ebbs of Pytilia’s heart are dripping away from her side, but she was already long gone.

Whimbrel stands at her side. She is painfully still.

When Mowana draws away, agony in her eyes, Whimbrel breaks. She clutches at Pytilia’s body, wailing her grief. Her claws unsheathe almost despite herself, and Mowana watches her mother draw red lines down the body’s shoulders, clutching her close. 

She is a horrible daughter, because her first thought is would anyone do that for me, and her second is I wouldn’t do that for anyone. 

Whimbrel has to be prised away from the body. Fur and gore cling to her claws. She stands by her daughter’s side for the funeral. She takes Pytilia’s blade from the body’s pouch when the time comes. She recites the prayers in a quiet, hoarse voice. Mowana stays by her side. She follows the hymns and tries not to flinch when the Cleric, only a year younger than her, takes the body. 

At last, Whimbrel speaks, at the sunset of the following day. Silhouetted in gold and red, she raises her long muzzle to the sky.

‘Pytilia wanted so badly to see you joined.’ Her voice is shaky.

Mowana dips her head. She tries not to make a noise as her mother continues.

‘That meant more to her than anything else.’ She whirls on her daughter, fur unkempt, and Mowana tries not to flinch. ‘You have to – you have to – Her last wish was to see you joined with someone.’ 

Mowana nods. She feels the pit in her belly yawn wide, but forces it closed.

‘I will, Mama.’ 

Whimbrel purrs. She draws Mowana close, folding her into her chest, and Mowana tries hard not to feel caged.

‘You’re a good daughter, sweetheart.’

‘You know you’re supposed to feel something, right?’ Lantana asks. Her voice is gentle. ‘It’s not supposed to just be mild discomfort.’

Mowana digs her claws into the grass. ‘I–’

The pit in her belly, the empty feeling yawns up beneath her. There is a cold, bottomless fear there. This isn’t how she’s supposed to be. 

‘But – I love Clover.’ A feeble excuse. The whole Coalition knows that isn’t true.

Lantana tips her head. ‘Do you?’

Mowana doesn’t answer. She gets up and paces, trying to ignore the dawning terror. She can’t be a- … that would mean being alone. That would mean betraying everything her parents wanted for her. 

Who would want her if she was? 

Mowana has never been good at making friends. 

If she accepts this, isn’t she dooming herself to a life lived on the edges of the Coalition? She might as well appoint herself the new Cleric. That would cause less hassle. And she would never have to think about the empty hole that opened in the pit of her belly, heavy and resting on her ribs, beating with her heart. 

She turns away from Lantana. 

‘What about my cubs?’ 

Whimbrel makes it to Mowana’s joining, but she never gets to see her grandcubs.

Two of them. An entirely black tom, almost bluish, and a little blue tabby, fur soft and ticked. They roll and bob against each other as she holds them in her paws and they squeak and snuffle like little mice. Mowana buries her muzzle in their squirmy bodies and relishes the soft thin scent of them, like milk and wind. 

If being with Clover feels ever so slightly wrong, like she wasn’t made to do such a thing, then holding her firstborns is so, so right. 

Clover is stretched out asleep, his body a comforting warmth against her back. While she was giving birth he curled up in a corner of the base and slept, but they won’t tell her that until later. He’d sniffed at them obligingly when he came in, and then he curled into her nest and slept.

‘We need to name them,’ she says, but it echoes in an empty den. Plover and Coucal took Acacia out earlier, and there are only cooling nests. And Clover’s gentle breaths. Well. She can certainly forgive him for being tired. And the cubs are so little it won’t matter if they get names now or later. She tucks her head back into their squirmy bodies, and goes to sleep. 

Nothing is ever so right as when they have young cubs. 

Nothing is ever so wrong as when Mamba dies. 

He was only two. He was so young it makes her sick to think of it. Her belly churns and despite herself she thinks of Whimbrel. 

She must play her mother’s part, and so she stands stock-still at his funeral. 

She cannot bear to give him his final rites to free his soul from his body and when the Cleric comes to fetch his body she holds him as furiously as Whimbrel held Pytilia. He was already stiff and cold and when Clover took her by the middle to peel her away he felt the same. 

Things had never been the same after that. 

Calpe dies two years later, and Mowana pushes down her doubts about herself and whatever she feels for Clover and forces herself to act as his dutiful partner. 

Four years and three cubs later and it still isn’t right. 

Her son comes to her. He stumbles as he turns to face her. She licks the top of his head, and he leans into her side. 

‘Jackal, did you need something?’ Mowana purrs.

He tilts his head, shuffles his paws. Mowana waits. 

‘Mama, I … I don’t want a partner. I’m not going to join with anyone.’ 

Mowana looks at him. Whimbrel’s words rise in her mind. She opens her mouth to say I thought the same thing and now look at me, and then shuts it again. That isn’t what he needs. That isn’t what she needed. 

She opens her arms to him and her grown son melts into them. He is older than Calpe was when he died. 

‘Oh, baby,’ she says. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that. You… You can do whatever you want.’ 

He nestles his face into her chest. Mowana holds him close. He is warm and soft. He is nothing like Calpe, and he is going to outlive her. They all will. 

Mowana’s gaze alights on Clover. 

Realisation alights in her chest. And with it, the pit in her belly melts away. She tugs her boy closer. She’s done with him. 

[worldsandemanations]

Green-winged Pytilia (Pytilia melba), photograph by Dr Manoj C Sindagi

[rockjumperbirdingtours]

Photo of the Day - The Red-billed Pytilia (Pytilia lineata) is endemic to central and western Ethiopia. A bird that can be both locally common and frustratingly difficult to find. It inhabits open grassland and associated woodland, spending the majority of its time on the ground where it moves about unobtrusively.

Time spent near an isolated stream in the Jemma Valley produced this stunning male for Clayton Burne.

[antoinemarchalphotography-blog]

A green-winged pytilia in Kruger National Park, Limpopo Province, South Africa #greenwingedpytilia #pytilia #kruger #krugernationalpark #LimpopoProvince #southafrica #africa #bird #birdphotography #birdlovers #birdfreaks #nature #naturephotography #naturelover #naturephotographer #naturegeography #wild #wildnout #wildlifeonearth #ornithology #ornithologyphotography #bird #nature #wild #africageophoto #yourshotphotographer (at Kruger National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CU-7guTKgzp/?utm_medium=tumblr

[squawkoverflow]

A new variant has been added!

Green-winged Pytilia (Pytilia melba) © Henrik Grønvold

It hatches from arid, bright, colored, diagnostic, dry, female, golden, green, male, olive, orange, red, similar, small, woodland, and yellow eggs.

squawkoverflow - the ultimate bird collecting game          🥚 hatch    ❤️ collect     🤝 connect

[pytilia-bird]

[mikebarthphotography-blog]

Orange-winged Pytilia (Pytilia afra) This pytilia is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Photographed in South Africa. . . . . . . #naturegrampixels #wildplanet #bbcearth #best_birds_of_world #animalelite #mothernature  #nature_seekers #naturelovers  #splendid_animals #wildlife  #wildlifeonearth #wildlifeperfection #wildlifephoto  #wildlifeplanet #pytilia #orangewingedpytilia (at South Africa) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsLlF5QhdNg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ucsa9r4ze69v

[krugerexplorer]

So beautiful...! 🤩 A favourite of the small birds found in Kruger, this is a male green-winged pytilia that we saw near Biyamiti Weir. They don’t weigh much more than a 5-rand coin...! . 🦁𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗵?? 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗞𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲...! If you are missing the bush or safari adventures during lockdown, download the KrugerExplorer App to immerse yourself in the natural wonder of Kruger from the comfort of home! ☺ The KrugerExplorer App is an essential companion for seasoned Kruger visitors, first-timers, or those just wanting to escape to this extraordinary corner of Africa from home. It includes 400+ detailed animal profiles, hundreds of stunning photos, 70+ immersive journeys through Kruger, and the most accurate Kruger maps available today. If you love our posts and content then you’ll love the KrugerExplorer App, and we’d be so incredibly grateful for the support of our followers during this time. Our thanks and well-wishes to all, Danny & Charlotte x ☺ . 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗞𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗽𝗽... ~ The #1 travel app in South Africa ~ Downloads in over 55 countries ~ Over 200 5-star reviews globally ~ Featured by Apple as “App of the Day” ~ “Highly Recommended” by Getaway Magazine 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗞𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆. Or you can just follow the link in our profile above to see the App in action...! . KrugerExplorer #krugerexplorer #krugernationalpark #kruger #krugerpark #africansafari #africanwildlife #thisissouthafrica #wildlifelovers #fantasticbeasts #amazinganimals #big5 #bigfive #greaterkruger #knp #rsa_nature #lockdown2020 #bird #birds #birdsofsouthafrica #birdsofsouthernafrica #birding #birdlover #pytilia #greenwingedpytilia #melba #coloursplash #beautifulbirds (at Kruger National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAsqIDygBVL/?igshid=1lkqtr7j1pvg8

[buyela-e-africa]

Green-winged Pytilia

(Pytilia melba)

Usually seen in pairs as these birds are monogamous.

Absolutely stunning little birds. 💕

[herpsandbirds]

Green-winged Pytilia (Pytilia melba), male, family Estrildidae, order Passeriformes, found widely across much of Sub-Saharan Africa

photographs by Ian White | Flickr & Ministerio Oliveira Sede

[birdstudies]

February 14, 2024 - Red-winged Pytilia (Pytilia phoenicoptera) Found in a patchy range across central Africa, these waxbills live in savannas, shrublands, and grasslands. Foraging mostly on the ground alone or in pairs and sometimes joining mixed-species flocks, they feed on grass seeds and termites. They build ball-shaped nests with side entrances in bushes from grass stems and seed heads, lined with feathers and dry grass. Females usually lay clutches of three or four eggs.

[feliniakattus]

Character Card: Mowana

Name: Mowana

Role: Senator/Cook of the Coalition

Family: Clover (partner), Jackal, Motopi, Marula (cubs), Pytilia, (mother), Jacana (father)

Description: A pinkish-grey mackerel tabby molly with amber eyes. She is making jerky. They wear pink paints and a belt, along with a bag. They have no tail.

Orientation/Gender: Pansexual, demimolly (she/they)

Age: 12 cycles, 60 human years

Personality: Flaky, Curious, Pensive

[travel2unlimited]

Birds of Ruaha NP Ruaha National Park has 571 species of birds documented on the park’s territory - from rare endemic species to faraway European migrants. Among the species we saw Lilac-Breasted Roller(spectacular), European roller, White browed coucal, Helmeted guinefowl, Ring-necked dove, Little beeeater, Grey kestrel, Tawny eagle, Marabu stork, Open-billed stork, Slate-colored boubou, Yellow bellied greenbul, White-headed buffalo weaver, African golden weaver, Yellow-collared lovebird, Hildebrant’s frankolin, Red-winged frankolin, Ash starling, Woodland kingfisher, Dove frankolin, White-billed bastard, Crested frankolin, Buff-crested bastard, Von der Decken’s hornbill, Green-winged pytilia, Red-billed firefinch, Black-shouldered kite, Black-faced sandgrouse, Superb starling, D’Arnoud’s barbet, Hidida ibis, Cattle egret, Little egret, Grey heron, and many many others that we didn’t write down. #travel2unlimited #travel #travelblogger #Africa #safari #tanzania #natgeo #natgeotravel #lux #wildlife #africansafari #adventure #ruaha #nationalpark #birds #birding #nature (at Ruaha National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKGj5qxB6V-/?igshid=1f7kqvmah4prh

[blogtwotracks]

Colourful Green-winged Pytilia (Pytilia melba) pop out of the bush with its female while I was trying to call Prinia. #birds #birding #birdsofinstagram #birdsphotography #birdsofsouthafrica #beautifulbirds #birdlifesa #nikon #d850 #nikond850 #twotracksadventures #twotracksphotography #birdsofsouthernafrica #birds🐦 #birding_south_africa #bird_lovers #birdphotography #nikonbirdphotography #iamnikonsa #birdingpretoria (at Magalies Mountain) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDMeeZjFR9B/?igshid=zur5ztkjj7fb