Bird Guide

Black-winged Red Bishop vs Yellow-mantled Widowbird

Black-winged Red Bishop (Euplectes hordeaceus)

Black-winged Red Bishop

Euplectes hordeaceus

Small19 gGrassland

The black-winged red bishop is a stocky 13–15 cm (5.1–5.9 in) 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.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: (c) Nigel Voaden, some rights reserved (CC BY) · cc-by
Yellow-mantled Widowbird (Euplectes macroura)

Yellow-mantled Widowbird

Euplectes macroura

Small22 gGrassland

Males are larger than females and acquire longer tails and striking black and golden yellow plumages in the breeding season. The mantle colour is either golden yellow, or in the case of the northeastern race, E. m. macrocercus, black. The yellow shoulders persist in all male plumages, whether breeding or non-breeding.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: (c) 116916927065934112165, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by 116916927065934112165 · cc-by

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Black-winged Red Bishop and Yellow-mantled Widowbird.