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 Kibale National Park on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 262nd most-seen of the 366 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.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird in Kibale National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
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.
22nd of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings, Kibale National Park ranks 22nd at under 5%. 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 Kibale National Park (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are Black Bishop (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 Kibale National Park (17 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.
