The rock firefinch (Lagonosticta sanguinodorsalis) is a species of estrildid finch found in the Jos Plateau of central Nigeria and in Cameroon.

Rock firefinches fall in the family Estrildidae, which contains small passerine birds of the Old World and Australasia.

[2] Juvenile rock firefinches are characterized by a paler greyish-brown face and crown and a less red overall plumage compared to adults.

[4] Rock firefinches prefer inselbergs in bush savannah habitats and rocky outputs to build their nests in.

[4] During the dry season, rock firefinches have larger home ranges as a result of traveling to gallery forests to attain water.

During the wet season, rock firefinches do not need to travel to distant water resources and therefore have a smaller home range.

[6] Due to a high predation rate and brood parasitism, rock firefinches have a low breeding output compared to other subtropical birds.

Their foraging patterns instead largely correlate with diurnal temperature variation, suggesting that this is the driving force for their feeding behavior.

This could be due to an effort to reduce water loss by warmer temperatures, which would be more resource efficient for rock firefinches in the Jos Plateau.

[8] Rock firefinches are dominant over another species of estrildid finches of the area, L. senegala, and therefore exclude them from abundant food patches.

This requires a larger energy expenditure by the rock firefinches, which decreases their survival and reproductive success.

Habitat degradation is occurring at an alarming rate in Nigeria due to intensive wood-cutting and encroaching farmland to be used for domestic and commercial purposes.

Rock firefinches actively avoid farmland and already have a low adult survival rate, and therefore may be threatened by continued human disturbance.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)[11] classifies rock firefinches as a species of least concern.