Yellow Bishop
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| Yellow Bishop | ||||||||||||||
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| Euplectes capensis (Linnaeus, 1766) |
The Yellow Bishop or Yellow-rumped Widow (Euplectes capensis) is a resident breeding bird species in much of eastern and southern Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
This common weaver occurs in less arid vegetated areas, such as fynbos, moist grassland and bracken-covered valleys.
The Yellow Bishop is a stocky 15 cm long bird. The breeding male is black apart from his bright yellow lower back, rump, and shoulder patches, and brown edging to the wing feathers. He has a short crest, thick conical black bill, and a relatively short tail.
In non-breeding plumage, the black plumage is replaced by heavily streaked brown, and the bill is pale. The yellow shoulders and rump remain, and are a distinction from the female which lacks the contrasting colour patches.
The Yellow Bishop is a gregarious species which feeds on seed, grain and some insects. Calls include zeet zeet zeet, and a harsh zzzzzzt given by the male in flight.
[edit] References
- Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, SASOL Birds of Southern Africa (Struik 2002) ISBN 1-86872-721-1
