Euplectes capensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-rumped Widowbird sighting in Lake Manyara National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 220th most-seen of the 307 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–April and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-rumped Widowbird in Lake Manyara National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February and May–November, the lowest months. Those are among Lake Manyara National Park's wettest months, with about 150 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in September.
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.
18th of 30
Of the 30 parks where we can rate Yellow-rumped Widowbird sightings, Lake Manyara National Park ranks 18th at under 5%. The best odds are in Golden Gate Highlands National Park (South Africa, about 40%), West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 40%) and De Hoop Nature Reserve (South Africa, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Euplectes
The closest relatives of the Yellow-rumped Widowbird that you can see in Lake Manyara National Park (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are Black Bishop (about 40%), Red Bishop (about 10%) and Black-winged Bishop (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-rumped Widowbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Lake Manyara 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.
