The Red-billed Firefinch Lagonosticta senegalensis was first recorded from the Windhoek area in 1995 (Brown 1997). How it reached Windhoek, some 600 km south of its closest previous range in the Cuvelai basin north of Etosha National Park, is not clear. At the time of first reporting I thought that the small Windhoek population derived most probably from cage-bird escapees. In view of subsequent events I am no longer so sure, and suspect that the birds could have arrived unassisted, by natural dispersion and colonization. The first evidence of Red-billed Firefinches breeding in Windhoek was found in 1988 (Brown 1998) and I wrote "It remains to be seen whether the Red-billed Firefinch will survive and increase to become a common garden bird in Windhoek". Today we see that Red-billed Firefinches have ndeed increased in both numbers and range. They are one of the more common garden birds throughout the City.