Fan-tailed Widowbird Euplectes axillaris Scientific name definitions

15 cm; male 26–32 g, female 20–25 g. Typical widowbird with medium-length tail. Male nominate race breeding is black except for buff-edged tertials, secondaries and greater coverts, fringes often lost with wear, cinnamon-brown on bases to primary coverts and on median coverts, forming distinctive epaulet together with red lesser coverts; tail fan-shaped and elongated (mean length 7·5 cm); iris brown; bill pale grey-blue; legs black. Male non-breeding has forehead and crown black with narrow brown feather edges, nape and upperparts brown with broad blackish central streaks on feathers; wings as in breeding plumage, but secondary coverts black with broad buff margins, rectrices dark brown with pale edges and shorter (mean 6·2 cm); supercilium buffy, lores, cheek and ear-coverts brown, chin and throat whitish, breast and flanks buff with faint streaking, belly whitish, thighs and undertail-coverts buff; iris brown; bill blue, but brown on birds which have just acquired black remiges; legs dark brown. Female and subadult male are like non-breeding male, except remiges brown with pale edges, lesser primary coverts edged with cinnamon to orange-brown (but no red on epaulet); iris brown, bill horn-brown to pinkish brown, darker on culmen, legs pale brown to pinkish. Juvenile resembles female, except for very broad buffy edges on feathers of upperparts, bill uniformly pale brown. Races differ mainly in male breeding plumage: bocagei has lesser wing-coverts orange-yellow and greater coverts and primary coverts cinnamon-brown, forming much broader epaulet than in others; phoeniceus has wing-coverts orange (rather than red), generally an intermediate population; traversii has epaulet orange, proportionately longer tail (mean 8–5 cm) than other races (means 6·5-7·5 cm); zanzibaricus resembles phoeniceus, but male has dark spots on cinnamon wing-coverts, both sexes have heavier, deeper bill.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Tall grassland, often in moist or swampy areas, even reeds and papyrus (Cyperus papyrus); also drier grassland with bushes and cultivated areas, including sugar-cane fields. Usually below 1500 m; locally above 2000 m in E Africa.

Mainly resident, with local movements in non-breeding season. Greatest distance moved by a ringed individuals less than 50 km. Sex ratios at roosts in South Africa showed imbalance in favour of males in most months, suggesting differences in dispersal of sexes.

Diet mainly grass seeds, such as those of Setaria, Digitaria, Paspalum, Panicum, Polygonum senegalense, Echinochloa colonum; also maize (Zea mays), rice (Oryza) and herb seeds. Also insects, including termites (Isoptera) and caterpillars (Lepidoptera). After breeding forms large feeding flocks and roosts with other ploceids.

Song, from perch or in flight, a high-pitched, scratchy series of notes combined with sizzling sounds, rendered as "skreep skrik skrik wirra skreek skreek wirrily wirrily wirrily chink chink". In flight, a rolling "tseek-wirra-wirra tseek-wirra-wirra" call; contact call a repeated "zip-zip", alarm a harsher version of same.

Breeds Sept–Oct in W Africa, Aug in Sudan, Sept–Oct in Ethiopia and Aug–Oct in Somalia; in all months except Jan, primarily Mar–Jul, in Uganda; in DRCongo, Aug–Oct in N and Jan–Mar in S; Nov–Dec and Feb–Jun in Rwanda, Apr–Jul in Kenya, Mar in Tanzania, Jan–Apr in Angola, Jan–Mar in Zambia and Dec–Mar in Malawi; one Mar record for Zimbabwe; Oct–Mar in South Africa. Polygynous, up to eight nests in a territory of 0·6 ha. Male patrols territory in slow, undulating flight as a preliminary to perched courtship, or in defence against intruders. Epaulet colour appears to be important in male-male interactions, whereas tail length is important in attracting females; males with artificially elongated tails were apparently preferred as mates. Nest an oval ball of thin grass strips with side entrance, attached to vertical stems of grass or other vegetation; male weaves frame of long grass strands in a bower of living grass, female then adds dense lining of grass seedheads (which project from entrance as a porch); usually 60–80 cm above ground, sometimes only 10 cm from ground in shorter grass tufts. Clutch 2–3 eggs (mean 2·8 in South Africa), pale blue-green, irregularly marked with large olive-brown spots, or grey-green with interlaced brown flecks, or olive-green with sparse brown markings, or grey-white with overlying brown streaks and blotches, average size of 69 eggs 19·7 x 14·1 mm (South Africa); incubation by female only, period 12–14 days; chicks fed by female only, faecal sacs dropped 100 m from nest, nestling period 15–16 days; in captivity, young fed by female for 14 days after leaving nest. Ringed adults in South Africa have survived for longer than 8 years.

Not globally threatened. Widespread, and locally abundant. Estimated population in C & S Mozambique greater than 60,000 individuals.