Scientific name: Coccopygia melanotis
The swee waxbill is 9–10 cm long with a grey head and breast, pale yellow belly, olive back and wings, red lower back and rump, and a black tail. The upper mandible is black and the lower red. The male has a black face, but the female's face is grey.
Endemic to southern Africa, occurring from the Limpopo Province south through Swaziland and the extreme south-west of Mozambique to KwaZulu-Natal, extending east to the Eastern and Western Cape. It generally prefers edges of montane and coastal forest, wooded valleys in fynbos, bushy hillsides, grassy clearings in woodland, plantations and gardens.
It mainly eats seeds taken directly from grasses, supplemented with insects caught on the ground and in vegetation.
