Vidua paradisaea
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The long-tailed paradise whydah or eastern paradise whydah (Vidua paradisaea) is a bird in the family Viduidae of the order Passeriformes. It is a small passerine with a short, stubby bill, found across eastern and southern Africa from Ethiopia south to South Africa and west to Angola. It is mostly granivorous, and feed on seeds that have ripened and fallen on the ground. The ability to distinguish between males and females is quite difficult unless it is breeding season. During this time, the males moult into breeding plumage where they have a distinctive long tail. This can be up to three times longer than its own body or even more. Males are able to mimic songs where females can use that to discover their mate. However, there are some cases where females don't use songs to choose their mate but they use either male characteristics like plumage or they can have a shortage of options with song mimicry. Paradise whydahs are brood parasites. They do not destroy the host eggs that are originally there, but lay their own eggs alogside in the other bird's nest. Overall, these whydahs are considered least concern, based on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brookfield Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Memphis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Schönbrunn Zoo | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 4 | National Aviary | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Bird Kingdom | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Bloedel Conservatory | 🇨🇦 Canada |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Long-tailed Paradise Whydah sighting in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, based on 51 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 60th most-seen of the 272 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and April
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Long-tailed Paradise Whydah in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, against about 10% in July and September–October, the lowest months. Those are among Mkomazi National Park's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against 5 mm in July. May has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Long-tailed Paradise Whydah sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 29 parks where we can rate Long-tailed Paradise Whydah sightings, Mkomazi National Park ranks 3rd at about 30%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Tsavo East National Park (Kenya, about 30%) and Tsavo West National Park (Kenya, about 30%).
Same genus: Vidua
The closest relatives of the Long-tailed Paradise Whydah that you can see in Mkomazi National Park (genus Vidua, Indigobirds and Whydahs) are Pin-tailed Whydah (about 30%), Straw-tailed Whydah (about 20%) and Village Indigobird (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Long-tailed Paradise Whydah is recorded against all the birds logged in Mkomazi National Park (51 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.
