Long-tailed Widowbird

Identification

Long-tailed widowbirds exhibit distinct sexual dimorphism. Males and females exhibit differences in behavior and morphological traits. Adult males are entirely black, including under their wing-coverts. Males' wing shoulders are orange red and their wing-coverts white. Their bills are bluish white. Males are known for their distinctly long tails, which contain twelve tail feathers. Of these twelve tail feathers, between six and eight are approximately half a metre (approximately 20 inches) long. Males have wingspans of approximately 127 to 147 mm (approximately 5 to 5.8 inches).<p>Females have a rather subdued coloration. The upper portion of the female's body is streaked with buff or tawny and black. Female chests, breasts and flanks are slightly paler than their above coloring. The area under the wing-coverts is black and the females' tail feathers are narrow and pointed. Finally, their bills are horn-coloured.<p>Non-breeding males are slightly larger than females, though they demonstrate a remarkably similar appearance. For the most part, these males are colored in the same manner as the females, except in that they are more broadly streaked above and below and have wings and wing shoulders with the morphology of the breeding class of males. Rarely, males in the non-breeding class have elongated brownish black tail feathers, though these feathers are substantially shorter than those of the breeding class.<p>Immature males and females are very similar in appearance to the adult female. However, immature males, much like adult non-breeding males, are slightly larger than adult females.<p>The length of a female starts at 15cm and males have been recorded at 71cm in length, which has their tail included. Male weigh between 33–46 g and females weigh between 25–39 g.

Taxonomy

The long-tailed widowbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a bird collected in the Cape of Good Hope region of South Africa. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Emberiza progne in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The long-tailed widowbird is now one of 17 species placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1829. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek eu "fine" or "good" and the Neo-Latin plectes "weaver". The specific progne is Latin for a "swallow.<p>Three subspecies are recognised:<p>The long-tailed widowbird has three geographically differentiated subspecies. These include delamerei, found in the highlands of Kenya, delacouri, found in the Congo, Angola and Zambia, and progne, found in Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho. Some researchers have suggested the existence of long-tailed widowbird superspecies based on similarity in male nuptial plumage such as tail length, but this is the topic of some debate.

Scientific name

Euplectes progne

Authority

(Boddaert, 1783)

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Ploceidae

Genus

Euplectes

Range and habitat

There are three known isolated populations of long-tailed widowbirds. The first is found in the Kenyan highlands, the second in Angola, southern Zaire and Zambia, and the third in southern Africa. It is unknown when these populations were last in contact, however, and the central population differs most in morphology relative to the other two populations. The southern African population extends from the Eastern Cape (Transkei region) through the Free State, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, and western Eswatini to the Transvaal plateau. The species just enters southeastern Botswana, but is most commonly found in the central highveld of South Africa.<p>Long-tailed widowbirds are generally found in swampy grassland in flocks consisting of one or two males and a number of females. The males fly with their tails drooping and somewhat spread, and with slow regular movements of their wings. In wet weather, they are unable to fly due to their elongated tails. During the non-breeding season, long-tailed widowbirds congregate into flocks, which can be found roosting in reed beds. The long-tailed widowbird can be found at elevations up to 2,750 metres (9,022 feet) in the Drakensberg Mountains.

Migration

Resident species

Behavior

Migration pattern: Resident species.

Conservation

Population trend: stable.

Population trend

stable