Perlastrild Hypargos margaritatus

A delicate, rotund waxbill with a pink uppertail and a white-spotted belly. The male has a guava-pink face and throat and a brown crown, while the female has mostly gray underparts. Pairs are inconspicuous in thickets, dry forest, and sand forest, where they forage on the ground. When flushed they fly into thick scrub, often uttering a distinctive 8- to 10-note high-pitched insect-like trill: “tet-tet-tet-tet….” The similar Red-throated Twinspot differs by having a gray (not brown) crown, a wine-red throat in the male, and a pink-orange throat in the female.