Euplectes axillaris
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird sighting in Golden Gate Highlands National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 73rd most-seen of the 108 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird in Golden Gate Highlands National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August, the lowest month. That is one of Golden Gate Highlands National Park's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain against 130 mm in January. March has too few records to rate.
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.
10th of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings, Golden Gate Highlands National Park ranks 10th at about 10%. 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 Golden Gate Highlands National Park (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are Red Bishop (about 50%), Yellow-rumped Widowbird (about 40%) and Long-tailed Widow-bird (about 40%), 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 Golden Gate Highlands National Park (13 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.
