The Orange-winged Pytilia is a waxbill with conspicuous orange-yellow wings. It feeds on grass seeds and insects on the ground; the female’s wing color is duller than the male’s.
Males have a gray crown and nape, a crimson face, and olive-yellow upperparts; the flight feathers are orange-yellow. Females have a gray head and duller orange-yellow on the wings.
It uses grassland with thickets, scrub, woodland, and forest edges, and feeds mainly on the ground on grass seeds and insects.
In southern Africa, it builds a ball-shaped nest of dry grass with a side entrance and a feather lining.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.