Red-cowled Widowbird

Euplectes laticauda (Lichtenstein, MHC, 1823)

Red-cowled Widowbird, Euplectes laticauda, is a bird of the weaver family found in Africa from southeast Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia to central Kenya and north Tanzania. It lives in grasslands and bush clearings across this eastern range. Males are marked by a long tail and a bright red badge, features that are used in courtship. The species was once treated as the same as the Red-collared Widowbird, but it was separated because males differ clearly in plumage and tail length when breeding. Two subspecies are recognised.

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Ploceidae — Weavers, Widowbirds

Breeding range

Africa: Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia to c Kenya and n Tanzania