Shaft-tailed Whydah

Vidua regia (Linnaeus, 1766)

Shaft-tailed Whydah, Vidua regia, is a passerine of open habitats and grasslands in southern Africa, breeding from Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe to northern South Africa and southern Mozambique. It is a brood parasite of the violet-eared waxbill. In the breeding season the male shows black upperparts and crown, a golden breast, and four long black tail shafts with broadened tips. After breeding, he loses the long tail and takes on olive-brown female-like plumage.

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Viduidae — Indigobirds, Whydahs

Breeding range

Africa: Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe to n South Africa and s Mozambique