Yellow Bishop
Euplectes capensis
Chunky and large-billed bishop. Male shows yellow shoulders and rump in all plumages, but is otherwise the black in breeding plumage and streaky brown in non-breeding plumage. The female is brown and heavily streaked below, without yellow highlights. Found in grassland, open woodland, heathland, and cultivation. Usually in flocks, especially when not breeding. Song consists of simple twitters and sizzling notes. Females could be confused with many other species but usually associate with males, which show distinctive yellow shoulders and rump.
Identification
The yellow bishop is a stocky 15 centimetres (5.9 in) long bird. The breeding male is black apart from his bright yellow lower back, rump, and shoulder patches, and brown edging to the wing feathers. He has a short crest, thick conical black bill, and a relatively short tail. His bill size varies dramatically between races.<p>In non-breeding plumage, the black plumage is replaced by heavily streaked buffy-brown, and the bill is pale. The yellow shoulders and rump remain, and are a distinction from the female which lacks the contrasting colour patches. The juveniles and females are notoriously difficult to identify in the field, appearing identical to the juveniles and females of several other bishops and widowbirds as well as some seedeaters.<p>In the breeding season they are usually solitary or in pairs, but the non-breeding yellow bishop is gregarious, often forming flocks with other 'mixed euplectes'.<p>They feed on seed, grain and some insects.
Taxonomy
In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the yellow bishop in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope. He used the French name Le pinçon du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Fringilla Capitis Bonae Spei. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the yellow bishop. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Loxia capensis and cited Brisson's work. The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope. This species is now placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1829 with the southern red bishop as the type species. There are six subspecies.
- Scientific name
- Euplectes capensis
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Ploceidae
- Genus
- Euplectes
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
White-tipped Sicklebill
Eutoxeres aquila
This streaky hummingbird has a remarkably decurved bill like a Velociraptor claw. The bill shape alone distinguishes it from all hummingbirds except the very similar Buff-tailed Sicklebill, which only overlaps in some areas of the range. Look at the tail pattern to separate the two species: White-tipped is well-named with only white tips on the tail feathers, while Buff-tailed has more extensive buff on the outer tail feathers. Sicklebills are most often seen feeding on Heliconia flowers in the dark forest understory; they’re generally uncommon and fast-moving, difficult to get a look at. Does not visit feeders.
Panay Striped-Babbler
Zosterornis latistriatus
A fairly small bird of mid-elevation montane forest on Panay. Dark brown above and heavily streaked with black below, with base color blending from white on the throat to buffy on the lower belly. Note the white face edged with black and the thin black stripe behind the eye. Often found in mixed-species flocks. Somewhat similar to Stripe-sided and Visayan Rhabdornises, but smaller, and lacks the broad black band through the eye. Voice includes a loud staccato trill.
Chestnut-winged Foliage-gleaner
Dendroma erythroptera
Gray-brown foliage-gleaner with reddish wings and tail. Face and throat washed with dull yellow, with a faint eyeline; this is unlike many other foliage-gleaners which have a clear eyebrow or throat patch. Usually forages fairly high in the midstory and canopy of mature rainforest, often with mixed species flocks. Many foliage-gleaners have reddish wings; look for reddish wings contrasting with grayish body and tawny ochraceous face and throat in this species.
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