The Rock Firefinch (Lagonosticta sanguinodorsalis), and its brood parasite the Jos Plateau Indigobird (Vidua maryae), are endemic to Plateau state in Nigeria. They occur in rocky habitats containing a mixture of trees, bushes and open areas, but little is known of its ecology.

The Jos Plateau Indigobird was described as recently as 1982, when the American scientist R. B. Payne, an authority on Estrildine finches, stumbled across an indigobird with an unknown call. As indigobirds mimic the song of the bird species which they parasitize, he understood that this bird most likely was associated with an unknown host species. Instead of one new species, he had found two!

It took a further 15 years before he found and described the Rock Firefinch. The species resembles other firefinches, closest in plumage to the Black-bellied Firefinch, but has several unique characters such as a bluish bill and a grey head. The life of the Rock Firefinch and other Estrilidine finches forms the focus of a special collaborative project between APLORI and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.