Euplectes axillaris
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The fan-tailed widowbird (Euplectes axillaris), also known as the red-shouldered widowbird, is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae, which is native to grassy and swampy areas of the tropical and subtropical Afrotropics.
It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
(Fan-tailed widowbird = ) Red-shouldered widowbird - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African... Wikipedia →
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird sighting in Amboseli National Park on a given day, based on 172 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 102nd most-seen of the 362 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird in Amboseli National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August, the lowest month. That is one of Amboseli National Park's wettest months, with about 220 mm of rain against 10 mm in July.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings, Amboseli National Park ranks 5th at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania, about 20%), iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, about 20%) and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (South Africa, about 20%).
Same genus: Euplectes
The closest relatives of the Fan-tailed Widowbird that you can see in Amboseli National Park (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are Yellow-crowned Bishop (about 10%), White-winged Widowbird (about 10%) and Red Bishop (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fan-tailed Widowbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Amboseli National Park (172 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
