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Photo by Shailesh Patel
Location: Ziwa Dam, Kenya.

Euplectes axillaris

[edit] Identification

Length 15-17 cm. A short-tailed widowbird.

Breeding male: Black with red 'shoulders' and buff greater wing-coverts. The tail is fanned only in display. Non-breeding male: Brown, streaked blackish; with black primaries and red 'shoulders'. Female: Brown with blackish streaking above and reddish 'shoulders'.

[edit] Distribution

Widespread throughout Africa:
Western Africa Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Eastern Africa Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Mafia Island, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi.
Southern Africa Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland.

[edit] Taxonomy

Euplectes axillaris has five subspecies:^[1]

• E. a. bocagei

• Mali to Angola, south-western Zaire, northern Botswana and Namibia

• E. a. traversii

• Highlands of Ethiopia

• E. a. phoeniceus

• Southern Sudan to southern Ethiopia, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania and Zambia

• E. a. zanzibaricus

• Coastal Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania

• E. a. axillaris

• Malawi and Mozambique south to eastern South Africa

[edit] Habitat

Tall grassland, reedbeds and sugar cane fields.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Sinclair, I and P Ryan. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691118154

• List of references

[edit] External Links