Southern Red Bishop - BirdForum Opus

Male and female
Photo © by Mybs
Plattekloof Hill, near Cape Town, South Africa

Alternative name: Red Bishop

Identification

Non-breeding plumage (drinking bird on right with Chestnut Sparrow)
Photo © by volker sthamer
Burunge, Tanzania, September 2017

13-15 cm (5-6 in)
Breeding Male

Found in East and South Africa in eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, southern Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.
Introduced populations exist, eg. in Andalucia (Spain).

This is a monotypic species.
Several subspecies have been described (eg sundevalli or nigrifrons), however this species varies clinally in size.

Open country, tall grassland, near water.

Its nest is spherical and woven, and is situated in tall grass. It lays 2 - 4 eggs.

It feeds on seed, grain and some insects.

Call: a thin tsip

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved December 2015)

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2021) Southern Red Bishop. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 29 April 2021 from https://www.birdforum.net/wiki/Southern_Red_Bishop