Yellow-rumped Widowbird

Yellow-rumped Widowbird

Euplectes capensis

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~30% · Possible
at De Hoop Nature Reserve

In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%

175 Verified sightings at De Hoop Nature Reserve From 2019 to 2026
2,966 In all 30 parks
September Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Yellow-rumped Widowbird

The yellow bishop (Euplectes capensis), also known as Cape bishop, Cape widow or yellow-rumped widow, is a resident breeding Afromontane bird species. This common weaver occurs in less arid vegetated areas, such as fynbos, moist grassland and bracken-covered valleys at altitudes from sea level to the Ethiopian Highlands.

In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the yellow bishop in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope. He used the French name Le pinçon du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Fringilla Capitis Bonae Spei. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the yellow bishop. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Loxia capensis and cited Brisson's work. The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope. This species is now placed in the genus Euplectes... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:23

Zambia · 2026

© Magnus Wadstein · XC1101205 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:33

Congo (Democratic Republic) · 2018

© Robert Davis · XC401350 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:29

Burundi · 2025

© Bram Piot · XC972951 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Golden Gate Highlands National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~40%
2 West Coast National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~40%
3 De Hoop Nature Reserve 🇿🇦 South Africa
~30%
4 Bale Mountains National Park 🇪🇹 Ethiopia
~30%
5 Arusha National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
~30%
6 Volcanoes National Park 🇷🇼 Rwanda
~20%
7 Masai Mara National Reserve 🇰🇪 Kenya
~20%
8 Lake Nakuru National Park 🇰🇪 Kenya
~10%
9 Ngorongoro Conservation Area 🇹🇿 Tanzania
~10%
10 Mikumi National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
~10%
11 Gorongosa National Park 🇲🇿 Mozambique
~10%
12 Nairobi National Park 🇰🇪 Kenya
~10%
13 Garden Route National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~10%
14 Mkomazi National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
~10%
15 Table Mountain National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~10%
16 Virunga National Park 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo
<5%
17 Liwonde National Park 🇲🇼 Malawi
<5%
18 Lake Manyara National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
<5%
19 Bwindi Impenetrable National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
<5%
20 Tarangire National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
<5%
21 Kafue National Park 🇿🇲 Zambia
<5%
22 Aberdare National Park 🇰🇪 Kenya
<5%
23 Tsavo West National Park 🇰🇪 Kenya
<5%
24 Akagera National Park 🇷🇼 Rwanda
<5%
25 Amboseli National Park 🇰🇪 Kenya
<5%
26 Serengeti National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
<5%
27 South Luangwa National Park 🇿🇲 Zambia
<5%
28 Nyungwe National Park 🇷🇼 Rwanda
<5%
29 Queen Elizabeth National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
<5%
30 Kibale National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Dar es-Salaam 🇹🇿 Tanzania
~10%
2 Harare 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
~10%
3 Cape Town 🇿🇦 South Africa
<5%
4 Lusaka 🇿🇲 Zambia
<5%
5 Nairobi 🇰🇪 Kenya
<5%
6 Kigali 🇷🇼 Rwanda
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Yellow-rumped Widowbird in De Hoop Nature Reserve?

Possible

About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-rumped Widowbird sighting in De Hoop Nature Reserve on a given day, based on 175 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 57th most-seen of the 189 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Yellow-rumped Widowbird in De Hoop Nature Reserve?

September

In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-rumped Widowbird in De Hoop Nature Reserve on a given day, against about 10% in April and May, the lowest months. June has too few records to rate.

What time of day is best to see a Yellow-rumped Widowbird?

Between 8 and 11 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-rumped 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.

Where does the Yellow-rumped Widowbird sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Yellow-rumped Widowbird is recorded against all the birds logged in De Hoop Nature Reserve (175 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.

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