Black-winged red bishop | |
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Breeding plumage of the male | |
Non-breeding plumage of male | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Ploceidae |
Genus: | Euplectes |
Species: | E. hordeaceus |
Binomial name | |
Euplectes hordeaceus | |
Synonyms | |
Loxia hordeaceaLinnaeus, 1758 |
The black-winged red bishop (Euplectes hordeaceus), formerly known in southern Africa as the fire-crowned bishop, is a resident breeding bird species in tropical Africa from Senegal to Sudan and south to Angola, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
This common weaver occurs in a range of open country, especially tall grassland and often near water. It builds a spherical woven nest in tall grass. 2-4 eggs are laid.
The black-winged red bishop is a stocky 13–15 cm bird. The breeding male is scarlet apart from his black face, belly and wings and brown tail. The conical bill is thick and black. He displays prominently, singing high-pitched twitters from tall grass, puffing out his feathers or performing a slow hovering display flight.
The non-breeding male is yellow-brown, streaked above and shading to whitish below. It has a whitish supercilium. It resembles non-breeding male northern red bishop, but is darker and has black wings. Females are similar, but paler. Young birds have wider pale fringes on their flight feathers.
The black-winged red bishop is a gregarious species which feeds on seed, grain and some insects.
The fieldfare is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and across the Palearctic. It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter. It is a very rare breeder in Great Britain and Ireland, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.
The rufous-tailed scrub robin is a medium-sized member of the family Muscicapidae. Other common names include the rufous scrub robin, rufous bush chat, rufous bush robin and the rufous warbler. It breeds around the Mediterranean and east to Pakistan. It also breeds south of the Sahara from the Sahel region east to Somalia; these African birds are sometimes considered to be a separate species, the African scrub robin. It is partially migratory, wintering in Africa and India. This is a very rare visitor to northern Europe.
The northern red bishop or orange bishop is a small passerine bird in the family Ploceidae. It is part of the largest genus in the family with over 60 different species. Its sister species is the Southern red bishop. This species is most recognizable by the bright reddish orange with contrasting black plumage displayed by the breeding male. It is most common throughout the northern African continent but has also been introduced to areas in the western hemisphere.
The fox kestrel is a bird of prey belonging to the falcon family Falconidae. It is found in arid, open country in the northern part of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The square-tailed kite is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles and harriers.
The yellow bishop, also known as Cape bishop, Cape widow or yellow-rumped widow, is a resident breeding bird species in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The rufous-vented grass babbler or rufous-vented prinia is a small warbler in the family Pellorneidae that occurs in Pakistan, northwestern India and Nepal.
The river lapwing is a lapwing species which breeds from the Indian Subcontinent eastwards to Southeast Asia. It range includes much of northern and northeastern India, and extends through Southeast Asia to Vietnam. It appears to be entirely sedentary. Formerly also called spur-winged lapwing, this name is better reserved for one of the "spur-winged plovers" of old, Vanellus spinosus of Africa, whose scientific name it literally translates. The masked lapwing of Australasia was at one time also called "spur-winged plover", completing the name confusion.
The black-crowned sparrow-lark is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae. It is found across northern Africa from Mauritania through the Middle East to north-western India. Its natural habitat is dry savanna.
The rufous-naped lark or rufous-naped bush lark is a widespread and conspicuous species of lark in the lightly wooded grasslands, open savannas and farmlands of the Afrotropics. Males attract attention to themselves by a bold and often repeated wing-fluttering display from a prominent perch, which is accompanied by a melodious and far-carrying whistled phrase. This rudimentary display has been proposed as the precursor to the wing-clapping displays of other bush lark species. They have consistently rufous outer wings and a short erectile crest, but the remaining plumage hues and markings are individually and geographically variable. It has a straight lower, and longish, curved upper mandible.
The African grass owl is a species of owl in the barn owl family, Tytonidae.
The Madagascar sandgrouse is a species of bird in the family Pteroclidae. It is endemic to Madagascar and is a ground-dwelling short-legged plump bird. The head of the male is brown with a black area surrounding the beak. It has a pinkish-buff coloured breast, a light brown mottled back, brown wings and paler underparts barred with dark brown. The female has a generally duller appearance being cryptically coloured brown with dark specks and bars.
The fire-capped tit is a small, 10 cm (3.9 in) long, weighing about 7 g (0.25 oz) bird species assigned to the family Paridae, that breeds in the temperate forest bordering the Himalayas to the south, in the Hengduan Shan and Nujiang Shan on the Myanmar-China border, the Micah Shan and Daba Shan on the Northern Sichuan border. It winters down hill and further south. Further to the east, birds tend to be smaller and the plumage becomes gradually darker.
The red-collared widowbird is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. Red-collared widowbirds are found in grasslands and bush clearings in western and southern Africa. They are known for their long tails and brilliant red badges, both which act as sexual ornaments. They are often associated with other widowbird and bishop species. They are polygynous, where males acquisition of territory is an important determinant in their access to mates. Red-collared widowbirds have a wide range and there is little concern in terms of conservation status.
The long-tailed widowbird is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. The species are found in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, Eswatini, and Zambia. The long-tailed widowbird is a medium-sized bird and one of the most common in the territories it inhabits. Adult breeding males are almost entirely black with orange and white shoulders (epaulets), long, wide tails, and a bluish white bill. Females are rather inconspicuous, their feathers streaked tawny and black with pale patches on the chest, breast and back, narrow tail feathers, and horn-colored bills.
The orange weaver is a species of bird in the weaver family, Ploceidae. It is sparsely distributed across African tropical rainforest.
The southern red bishop or red bishop is a small passerine bird belonging to the bishop and widowbird genus Euplectes in the weaver family, the Ploceidae. It is common in wetlands and grassland in Africa south of the Equator. North of the Equator, it is replaced by the northern red bishop or orange bishop which was formerly regarded as a subspecies of this species.
The white-winged widowbird 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 black bishop is a species of passerine bird in the family Ploceidae native to Africa south of the Sahara. Three subspecies are recognised.
The yellow-crowned bishop 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.