Spermestes is a genus of small seed-eating birds in the family Estrildidae. They are distributed across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The genus Spermestes was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson to accommodate the bronze mannikin. The name combines the Ancient Greek sperma meaning "seed" and -estÃÂs meaning "-eater".
Based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2020, this genus was resurrected for a clade of species that were formerly assigned to the genera Lonchura and Odontospiza.
The genus contains four species: