Euplectes axillaris
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
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 iSimangaliso Wetland Park on a given day, based on 440 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 68th most-seen of the 351 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October to December
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird in iSimangaliso Wetland Park on a given day, against about 10% in February–April and June, the lowest months.
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, iSimangaliso Wetland Park ranks 2nd at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fan-tailed Widowbird is recorded against all the birds logged in iSimangaliso Wetland Park (440 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.
