This has been restricted to the town of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

The female is similar to the male but is less intensely coloured; juveniles lack any red on the underparts.

[11] The song, which is given by both sexes, is made up of various ringing notes which are randomly repeated and interspersed with squeaky whistle, trills and warbles.

More usual calls are rising trilling twitter " trrrrrrrr-t" and a loud clear "tui-tui-tui-tui", which is often followed by "wink-wink-wink".

[12] It generally prefers humid, thickly vegetated habitats such as bracken Pteridium aquilinum at forest edges, savanna with acacia woodland, rank grass within and belowscrub or thornbush, along streams and rivers with thick vegetation, often near quiet paths or roads.

[10][12] The African firefinch mainly feeds on seeds which are supplemented with insects, it mostly forages on the ground, searching through the soil looking for food.

[10] The male builds the nest, which is a round structure with a side entrance, the outer shell consists of long, dry grass blades and there is an inner shell of soft grass inflorescences, this is sometimes lined with feathers.