Yellow-mantled widowbird

Yellow-mantled widowbird
File:Yellow-mantled Widowbird, Ndassima, CAR (5958116143).jpg
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Ploceidae
Genus:	Euplectes
Species:	E. macroura
Binomial name
Euplectes macroura (Gmelin, 1789)

The yellow-mantled widowbird (Euplectes macroura), also known as the yellow-backed widow, is a species of bird in the Ploceidae family. It is the type species of the Euplectes genus, originally named from the city of Ouidah in Benin. Nowadays the name whydah (from "Ouidah") is however applied to some species in the Viduidae.

Males are larger than females and acquire longer tails and striking black and golden yellow plumages in the breeding season. The mantle colour is either golden yellow, or in the case of the northeastern race, E. m. macrocercus, black. The yellow shoulders persist in all male plumages, whether breeding or non-breeding.

Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland. It is widely distributed in Africa, and is found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The distinct race E. m. macrocercus occurs in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

External links

• (Yellow-mantled widowbird = ) Yellow-backed widow - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds