Euplectes macroura
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The yellow-mantled widowbird (Euplectes macroura), also known as the yellow-backed widow, is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. The yellow-mantled widowbird was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the crossbills in the genus Loxia and coined the binomial name Loxia macroura. Gmelin specified the locality as "Whydah"; this is Ouidah on the coast of Benin in West Africa. The specific epithet is from Ancient Greek makros meaning "long" and -ouros meaning "tailed". The yellow-mantled widowbird is now one of 18 species placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced in 1829 by the English naturalist William Swainson.
Males are larger than females and acquire longer tails and striking black and golden yellow plumages in the breeding... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Odzala-Kokoua National Park | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 4 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 5 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-shouldered Widowbird sighting in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, based on 450 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 101st most-seen of the 398 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-shouldered Widowbird in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in July to September, 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 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-shouldered 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.
2nd of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Yellow-shouldered Widowbird sightings, Masai Mara National Reserve ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Odzala-Kokoua National Park (Republic of the Congo, about 30%).
Same genus: Euplectes
The closest relatives of the Yellow-shouldered Widowbird that you can see in Masai Mara National Reserve (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are Yellow-rumped Widowbird (about 20%), Fan-tailed 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 Yellow-shouldered Widowbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Masai Mara National Reserve (450 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.
