Red-collared Widowbird
Euplectes ardens
A small widowbird. The breeding male is jet black, with a crimson band across the breast, and a 20-centimeter floppy graduated tail. All-black birds and birds with a reduced crimson band, also occur. The female and non-breeding male have dark streaked upperparts, pale unstreaked or faintly streaked underparts, and a yellowish eyebrow and face, and lack the long tail. Pairs breed in open grassland, savanna, scrub, and cultivated areas. The species may flock, often with other seedeaters, and move locally when breeding is over. Breeding males are distinctive, but non-breeding males and females can be confused with many other species. Can be tentatively identified by lack of red or yellow in the wing, along with a buffy breast that is unstreaked or only lightly streaked.
Identification
Similar to other widowbirds, male red-collared widowbirds have both seasonal and sexual dimorphism. Males are about 25 cm (9.8 in) in length while females are only 13 centimeters. A similar trend is seen with weight, where males range from 20 to 26 g (0.71 to 0.92 oz) and females are only between 16 and 22 grams. During non-breeding seasons, the male plumage is brown, while in breeding season, October to April, they have black plumage with a long tail, approximately 22 cm, and crescent-shaped carotenoid based chest patch. There is significant variation in brightness, hue, and chroma of the carotenoid badges. In contrast, females and subadults, like nonbreeding males, are streaky dull brown with a short tail, approximately 4 cm. Nonbreeding males, however, retain their black tails, while females and subadults' tails are dark-brown.
Taxonomy
The red-collared widowbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen 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 Fringilla ardens in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The red-collared 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 ardens is Latin for "burning" or "glowing".<p>Traditionally, Euplectes is thought to contain two clades, with the bishops in one clade and the widowbirds in another. However, molecular evidence suggests that the red-collared widowbird is actually a long-tailed bishop rather than a true widowbird. In captivity, they have been successfully bred with southern red bishop, yellow-mantled widowbird, fan-tailed widowbird, and black-winged red bishop.<p>The red-collared widowbird was formerly considered to be conspecific with the red-cowled widowbird (Euplectes latica). The red-cowled widowbird is now treated as a separate species as it has more red in the plumage and the tail length of a male in breeding plumage is shorter.
- Scientific name
- Euplectes ardens
- Authority
- (Boddaert, 1783)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Ploceidae
- Genus
- Euplectes
Range and habitat
Red-collared widowbirds are found throughout Eastern and Southern Africa. While their habitats are varied, they are often found in open grasslands, agricultural areas, clearings in forests, and on slopes with limited tree coverage.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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