Yellow-crowned Bishop
Euplectes afer
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderPasseriformes (Perching Birds)
- FamilyPloceidae (Weavers and Allies)
- GenusEuplectes (Bishops and Widowbirds)
- SpeciesEuplectes afer (Yellow-crowned Bishop)
About the Yellow-crowned Bishop
The yellow-crowned bishop (Euplectes afer) is a species of passerine bird in the family Ploceidae native to Africa south of the Sahara. It is highly sexually dimorphic in its breeding season, during which the male adopts a distinctive yellow and black plumage, contrasting with the female's predominantly brown coloration. Four subspecies are recognised.
The yellow-crowned bishop was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the crossbills in the genus Loxia and coined the binomial name Loxia afra. The specific epithet is from Latin afer meaning "Africa". Gmelin based his account on the "Black-bellied grossbeak" that had been described and illustrated in 1776 by the English naturalist Peter Brown. Gmelin specified the location as Africa but this was restricted to Senegal by Claude Grant and Cyril Mackworth-Praed in 1944. The yellow-crowned bishop is now one of 18 species placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced in 1829 by the English naturalist William Swainson.
A molecular genetic study published in 2019 found that within the genus Euplectes... Wikipedia →
Closest Relatives at Golden Gate Highlands National Park
Red Bishop
Euplectes orix
Yellow-rumped Widowbird
Euplectes capensis
Long-tailed Widow-bird
Euplectes progne
Red-collared Widowbird
Euplectes ardens
Fan-tailed Widowbird
Euplectes axillaris
Cape Weaver
Ploceus capensis
Southern Masked Weaver
Ploceus velatus
Red-billed Quelea
Quelea quelea
Village Weaver
Ploceus cucullatus
Pied Starling
Lamprotornis bicolor
Red-winged Starling
Onychognathus morio
African Stonechat
Saxicola torquatus
Global Distribution
Where this species is recorded worldwide. Restricted to human observations from 2019 onwards — the same kind of record and the same period the probabilities on this page are built from, so collar-tracking studies, camera-trap arrays and museum specimens are excluded. Around Santa Rosa that removes 5,924 GPS fixes from a handful of tagged jaguars.
where this species is recorded (GBIF density — it tracks where observers go, not how likely a sighting is) · parks where it occurs — tap a pin for the sighting probability there
Parks Where Found
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 4 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 6 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 7 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 8 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 10 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 11 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 12 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 13 | Golden Gate Highlands National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 14 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 15 | Lake Manyara National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 16 | Pilanesberg National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 17 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 18 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 19 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 20 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 21 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 22 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 23 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 24 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo |