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 Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, based on 422 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 108th most-seen of the 398 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.
April and May
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in July to October, the lowest months. Those are among Masai Mara National Reserve's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in July.
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.
8th of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings, Masai Mara National Reserve ranks 8th 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 Masai Mara National Reserve (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are Yellow-rumped Widowbird (about 20%), Yellow-shouldered Widowbird (about 10%) and Jackson's Widowbird (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 Masai Mara National Reserve (422 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.
