White-winged Widowbird

About the White-winged Widowbird

The white-winged widowbird (Euplectes albonotatus) 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's yellow plumage turns dark and he gains more white feathers, contrasting with the female's predominantly pale coloration. Three subspecies are recognised.

The white-winged widowbird was first described by the American ornithologist John Cassin in 1848. Hybrids with "red bishops", probably northern red bishop (E. franciscanus), have been reported in captivity. Non-captive interbreeding of race eques with nominate appears to occur in southern Tanzania, but they appear to stay segregated in Burundi and western Tanzania. A proposal has been made for race sassii, which is found along the northwestern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Alternate common names include: white-fronted/white-shouldered widowbird, white-winged/white-shouldered whydah, long-tailed black whydah.

Three subspecies of the white-winged widowbird are now recognized. E. a. albonotatus (Cassin, 1848), inhabits Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia... Wikipedia →