Oriole finch

Oriole finch
File:Linurgus olivaceus.jpg
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Fringillidae
Genus:	Linurgus L. Reichenbach, 1850
Species:	L. olivaceus
Binomial name
Linurgus olivaceus (Fraser, 1843)

File:Linurgus olivaceus female.jpg

Linurgus olivaceus (female)

The oriole finch (Linurgus olivaceus) is a small passerine bird in the finch family.

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. The oriole finch 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 species was described by the British zoologist and collector Louis Fraser in 1843 and given the binomial name Coccothraustes olivaceus. The oriole finch is placed in its own monotypic genus Linurgus. The exact relationship of this genus to other finch genera is unclear. In their phylogenetic analysis published in 2012, Zuccon and colleagues found that the oriole finch was a sister group to the genus Serinus. This contrasts with the earlier 2009 analysis by Nguembock and colleagues which found that the oriole finch was sister to the genus Carduelis.

Four subspecies are recognised:

• L. o. olivaceus - (Fraser, 1843)
• L. o. prigoginei - Schouteden, 1950
• L. o. elgonensis - van Someren, 1918
• L. o. kilimensis - (Reichenow & Neumann, 1895)