Euplectes axillaris
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
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 →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird sighting in Durban on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 162nd most-seen of the 219 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird in Durban on a given day, against under 5% in January to November, the lowest months. That is one of Durban's wettest months, with about 210 mm of rain against 25 mm in June.
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.
4th of 4
Of the 4 cities where we can rate Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings, Durban ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kigali (Rwanda, about 40%), Maputo (Mozambique, about 10%) and Kampala (Uganda, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fan-tailed Widowbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Durban (13 verified sightings), 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.
