OBSERVATIONS ON WILSON'S WIDOWFINCH AND THE PINTAILED WHYDAH IN SOUTHERN GHANA, WITH NOTES ON THEIR HOSTS

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Abstract
Information on the 2 viduines occurring at Cape Coast, southern Ghana, was collected casually between 1975 and 1978. Wilson''s widowfinch V. wilsoni and the pintailed whydah V. macroura were both common, the former in residential areas and the latter on open ground. Both bred in the wet season and moved out of the area from Oct.-Dec. Widowfinches during the dry season formed flocks which contained a small but variable proportion of recognizable adult males. Flocks broke up from March, and in the breeding season almost all groups had only a single adult male. Lagonosticta rufopicta was recorded as a biological host of the widowfinch. Estrilda troglodytes, E. melpoda and Lonchura cucullata were recorded as hosts of the whydah. The whydahs (but not the widowfinches) were usually reared with the host young, and host productivity was reduced.

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