![]() It usually stays confined to the low coastal areas of the islands it inhabits, but it can move to elevations up to 2,300 metres (7,500 ft) to exploit expanding cultivation and grasslands. It is also found in cultivated areas, such as rice fields. Within these areas, it is found in grasslands with scattered trees and shrubs, and in open or grassy woodlands. However, this is likely more related to the abundance of vegetation than the abundance of water as a resource in itself. The areas it chooses to occupy are close to water, and places where rain is concentrated after it falls. The Australian zebra finch is generally found in more arid areas. The species is generally not found on the coasts, except for the arid western edge. ![]() The Australian zebra finch has the most extensive mainland distribution of the Australian estrilids, being found in about 75% of mainland Australia. It is likely that the Australian zebra finch evolved first, with the Sunda zebra finch descending from Australian zebra finches blown out to sea during the Pleistocene. The International Ornithological Congress followed suit in 2022 based on studies noting differences in plumage, mtDNA divergence, and assortative mating between both species in captivity. They were split by the IUCN Red List and BirdLife International in 2016. For over a century and a half, the Australian and Sunda zebra finches were classified as a single species, Taeniopygia guttata. The Australian zebra finch was described in 1837 by John Gould as Amadina castanotis, about two decades after the Sunda zebra finch ( T. Due to the ease of keeping and breeding the zebra finch in captivity, it has become Australia’s most widely studied bird by 2010, it was the most studied captive model passerine species worldwide, by a considerable margin. The bird has been introduced to Puerto Rico and Portugal. ![]() It ranges over most of the continent, avoiding only the cool humid south and some areas of the tropical far north. The Australian zebra finch or chestnut-eared finch ( Taeniopygia castanotis) is the most common estrildid finch of Central Australia. ![]()
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