Shelley Astrildi Cryptospiza shelleyi

A spectacular, distinctive, enigmatic waxbill with a red bill and upperparts, an olive throat, orange flanks, and black wings. Sexes differ: male is red from forehead to nape and female is olive. Juvenile is like the female, but lacks orange flanks. Very poorly known; endemic to the Albertine Rift where it is very rare, preferring the understory of moist closed forest, forest edges near streams, and bamboo, between 1600 and 3000 meters of elevation. Call is described as a series of twittering “tu-tu-tu-ti-ti-ti” notes rising and then falling.