Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat vs Common Waxbill

Sturnira koopmanhilli compared with Estrilda astrild

Key Differences

• Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat is Data Deficient while Common Waxbill is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat	Common Waxbill
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Chordata (Chordates)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Mammalia (Mammals)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Chiroptera (Bats)	Passeriformes (Songbirds)
Family	Phyllostomidae	Estrildidae
Genus	Sturnira	Estrilda
Species	Sturnira koopmanhilli	Estrilda astrild

Evolutionary Relationship

Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat and Common Waxbill share a common ancestor at the Phylum level: Chordata. (Chordates)

Conservation Status

Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat

DD — Data Deficient

Common Waxbill

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat	Common Waxbill
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Range

Distributed across Colombia and Ecuador.

Common Waxbill

Habitat

Inhabits tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests and tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests spanning the Australasia and Afrotropic realms.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (Cabo Verde, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe), Asia (Taiwan, United Arab Emirates), Europe (9 countries), North America (Trinidad and Tobago, United States), Oceania and the Pacific (Vanuatu), and South America (Brazil, Uruguay).

Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat

The Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat (Sturnira koopmanhilli) is a medium-sized frugivorous bat in the family Phyllostomidae, endemic to the Chocó biogeographic region of northwestern South America, where it occurs in the humid forests of the Pacific slope of Colombia and adjacent Ecuador. It belongs to the genus Sturnira — the yellow-shouldered bats — characterised by males bearing distinctive yellowish, orange, or reddish shoulder glands (from which the group's name derives), robust bodies, and rounded ears. Like all Sturnira, this species is primarily frugivorous, consuming a wide range of small, soft fruits from pioneer and forest trees, and plays an important role as a seed disperser in disturbed forest patches and forest edges. The diet of Solanaceae (nightshade family) fruits is particularly typical of the genus, and Sturnira bats are considered the primary dispersers of many pioneer Solanum species in Neotropical secondary succession, contributing directly to forest regeneration. The IUCN classifies the Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat as Data Deficient, reflecting significant uncertainty about the species' distribution limits, population size, and ecological requirements. The Chocó region continues to experience rapid deforestation, which threatens frugivorous bat diversity even where individual species lack adequate data for formal threat assessment.

Common Waxbill

The most widespread waxbill in Africa, common waxbills are native to sub-Saharan Africa but have been introduced across the Iberian Peninsula, Brazil, Hawaii, and several Atlantic islands, becoming one of the world's most widely distributed cage bird escapees. Small, lively finches with red bills and a red stripe through the eye, they inhabit rank grasslands and areas near water. Highly gregarious, often seen in large mixed flocks with other estrildids.