Euplectes axillaris
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 Mkomazi National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 258th most-seen of the 272 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.
December
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January, March–April and June–November, the lowest months. That is one of Mkomazi National Park's wettest months, with about 150 mm of rain against 5 mm in July. May has too few records to rate.
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.
17th of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings, Mkomazi National Park ranks 17th 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 Mkomazi National Park (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are White-winged Widowbird (about 30%), Zanzibar Bishop (about 20%) and Yellow-rumped 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 Mkomazi National Park (6 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.
