Fan-tailed Widowbird - BirdForum Opus

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Photo by Shailesh Patel
Location: Ziwa Dam, Kenya.

Euplectes axillaris

Distribution

Widespread throughout Africa from south of the Sahara; Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa, Lesotho

Taxonomy

Euplectes axillaris has five subspecies:^[1]

• E. a. bocagei

• Mali to Angola, south-western Zaire, northern Botswana and Namibia

• E. a. traversii

• Highlands of Ethiopia

• E. a. phoeniceus

• Southern Sudan to southern Ethiopia, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania and Zambia

• E. a. zanzibaricus

• Coastal Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania

• E. a. axillaris

• Malawi and Mozambique south to eastern South Africa

Habitat

Tall grassland, reedbeds and sugar cane fields.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Sinclair, I and P Ryan. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691118154

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Fan-tailed Widowbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 14 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Fan-tailed_Widowbird

External Links

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