Cameroon indigobird
The Cameroon indigobird (Vidua camerunensis) is a species of bird in the family Viduidae. It is considered by some authors to be a subspecies of the variable indigobird (Vidua funerea). They range from Sierra Leone to east Cameroon, north east Zaire and South Sudan. There are less than 10,000 Vidua camerunensis in total, which range over 20,000 km2 in the savannah and grasslands of South Africa. The birds have a distinct blue color with underlying brown feathers and a small white beak to crack nuts and seeds. There are many indigobird species in the world, and they are mainly known for their song mimicry. The different species of indigobirds are not morphologically different, but they do differ in the songs they choose to mimic. Ecology and behavior Cameroon indigobirds are known for song determination and mimicking the songs of other bird species. The males pick which songs to mimic; however, when one male chooses a song from a host bird, the other males mimic other songs from a different host species. This is an effective way to differentiate males when mimicking the songs. There are several distinct host species that the indigobirds mimic from; the most common are the black-bellied