The black-and-white mannikin (''Spermestes bicolor'') also black-and-white munia or red-backed mannikin, is a species of

estrildid finch Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family (taxonomy), family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They comprise species commonly known as munias, mannikins, firefinches, parrotfinches and waxbills. ...

, widely occurring throughout the African tropical rainforest. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of . It is found in moist

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

and

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in large ...

habitat. The status of the species is evaluated as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

. They are seedeaters, but are known to feed on algae. The black-and-white mannikin was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

in 1843 by the British zoologist and collector

Louis Fraser Louis Fraser (1810 – 1866) was a British Zoology, zoologist and collector. In his early years, Fraser was curator of the Museum of the Zoological Society of London. Little is known about Fraser's early life. He was born in 1810 and married Mary A ...

from a specimen collected near

Cape Palmas Cape Palmas is a headland on the extreme southeast end of the coast of Liberia, Africa, at the extreme southwest corner of the northern half of the continent. The Cape itself consists of a small, rocky peninsula connected to the mainland by a san ...

in Liberia. He placed the species in the genus ''

Amadina ''Amadina'' is a genus of estrildid finches that are found in Africa. Taxonomy The genus ''Amadina'' was introduced in 1827 by the English naturalist William Swainson with the cut-throat finch as the type species. The name ''Amadina'' is a corru ...

'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Amadina bicolor''. The black-and-white mannikin is now one of the four species placed in the genus ''

Spermestes ''Spermestes'' is a genus of small seed-eating birds in the family Estrildidae. They are distributed across Sub-Saharan Africa. Taxonomy The genus ''Spermestes'' was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson to accommodate ...

'' that was introduced in 1837 by

William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...

. Four

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognised: * ''S. b. bicolor'' (

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal ...

, 1843) – Guinea-Bissau to Cameroon * ''S. b. poensis'' (Fraser, 1843) – south Cameroon to south Sudan, southwest Ethiopia, west Kenya and the island of

Bioko Bioko (; ; ; historically known as Fernando Pó, ) is an island of Equatorial Guinea. It is located south of the coast of Cameroon, and northwest of the northernmost part of mainland Equatorial Guinea. Malabo, on the north coast of the is ...

* ''S. b. woltersi'' ( Schouteden, 1956) – southeast DR Congo and northwest Zambia * ''S. b. nigriceps'' Cassin, 1852 – central Kenya and south Somalia to east Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and east South Africa The subspecies ''S. b. woltersi'' and ''S. b. nigriceps'' have sometimes been considered as a separate species, the red-backed mannikin.

References

Spermestes Birds of the Gulf of Guinea Birds of the African tropical rainforest Birds described in 1843 Taxa named by Louis Fraser {{Estrildidae-stub