Alternative name: Yellow-shouldered Widowbird
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- Euplectes macroura
Identification
14 cm (5½ in); a long-tailed widowbird
Male
- Black over-all plumage
- Golden-yellow shoulder patches
- Long graduated tail
Distribution
Africa:
Western Africa: Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Zaire
Eastern Africa: Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Zimbabwe
Taxonomy
Subspecies
- E. m. macroura:
- Southern Senegal to Liberia, east to southern Sudan and South Sudan, south to central Angola, Zambia, eastern Zimbabwe, western Mozambique, and Malawi
- E. m. macrocerca:
- E. m. conradsi:
- North-western Tanzania (Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria)
Habitat
Marshes with trees and scrub, moist grassland and rice fields.
Behaviour
Diet
Their diet consists mostly of seeds, particularly sedge and other grasses. They also eat some arthropods.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Avibase
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved January 2016)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Yellow-mantled Widowbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 27 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Yellow-mantled_Widowbird
