The fan-tailed widowbird (''Euplectes axillaris''), also known as the red-shouldered widowbird, is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family Ploceidae, which is native to grassy and swampy areas of the tropical and subtropical

Afrotropics The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

Range

It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, DRC,

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Euplectes axillaris1 crop

Races

There are five accepted races: * ''E. a.'' subsp. ''bocagei'' (Sharpe, 1871) – West Africa from

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

to CAR and DRC, and southwards to the Caprivi Strip, Okavango and upper

Zambezi The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...

regions. * ''E. a.'' subsp. ''phoeniceus'' (Heuglin, 1862) – East Africa (Sudan to upland Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi) * ''E. a.'' subsp. ''traversii'' (Salvadori, 1888) – Ethiopian Highlands * ''E. a.'' subsp. ''zanzibaricus'' (Shelley, 1881) – African east coast (Somalia to Tanzania) * ''E. a.'' subsp. ''axillaris'' (A.Smith, 1838) – southeastern Africa (lowland Malawi to eastern South Africa)

References

External links

* (Fan-tailed widowbird = ) Red-shouldered widowbird
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds

Species text
on Weaver Watch fan-tailed widowbird Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa fan-tailed widowbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Ploceidae-stub