Yellow Bishop - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Mybs
South Africa, August 2004

Euplectes capensis

Identification

Female
Photo © by steven(sa)
South Africa.

15 cm (6 in)
Breeding Male

• Black plumage
• Yellow lower back, rump, and shoulder patches
• Brown edging to the wing feathers
• Short crest
• Thick conical black bill
• Short tail

Non-breeding plumage

• Black areas become heavily streaked brown
• Pale bill
• Yellow shoulders and rump

The female is similar to the non-breeding male but lacks the contrasting colour patches.

Distribution

Non-breeding Male
Photo © by Peter Day
Ceres, South Africa, January 2019

Eastern and Southern Africa
Western Africa: Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, eSwatini
African Islands: Gulf of Guinea Islands: Bioko (Fernando Po)

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Euplectes capensis has six subspecies:^[1]

• E. c. phoenicomerus

• Highlands of South-eastern Nigeria and Cameroon; Bioko

• E. c. crassirostris

• North-eastern South Africa to Uganda, Sudan and Kenya

• E. c. xanthomelas

• Ethiopia

• E. c. angolensis

• Northern and central highlands of Angola

• E. c. approximans

• Eastern South Africa (Knysna to Gauteng Province)

• E. c. capensis

• Western South Africa to Knysna

Habitat

Montane damp grassland.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet consists mostly of grass seeds, including rice, maize and millet. Supplemented with insects.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved October 2014)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Yellow Bishop. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 18 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Yellow_Bishop

External Links

Search for photos of Yellow Bishop in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.