Euplectes orix
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The southern red bishop or red bishop (Euplectes orix) is a small passerine bird belonging to the bishop and widowbird genus Euplectes in the weaver family, the Ploceidae. It is common in wetlands and grassland in Africa south of the Equator. North of the Equator, it is replaced by the northern red bishop or orange bishop (E. franciscanus) which was formerly regarded as a subspecies of this species.
In 1751 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the southern red bishop in the fourth volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The Grenadier". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a live bird kept at the home of George Shelvocke in Greenwich. Edwards was told that the bird had come from Angola. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the southern red bishop with the buntings in the genus Emberiza. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Emberiza orix and cited Edwards' work. The southern red bishop is now one of 17 species placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced in 1829 by the English... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 4 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 5 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 7 | Abu Dhabi | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | |
| 8 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Lubango | 🇦🇴 Angola | |
| 10 | Lusaka | 🇿🇲 Zambia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cheyenne Mountain Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Warsaw Zoo | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 3 | Temaikén | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Halls Gap Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Bloedel Conservatory | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | herpetarium warszawskiego ZOO | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 7 | akwarium warszawskiego ZOO | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 8 | Limburg Zoo | 🇧🇪 Belgium |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red Bishop sighting in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, based on 5 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.
February and September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red Bishop in Mkomazi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, June–August and October–January, the lowest months. Those are among Mkomazi National Park's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain a month against 150 mm in December. May has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red Bishop sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
25th of 32
Of the 32 parks where we can rate Red Bishop sightings, Mkomazi National Park ranks 25th at under 5%. The best odds are in Golden Gate Highlands National Park (South Africa, about 50%), Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda, about 30%) and De Hoop Nature Reserve (South Africa, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Euplectes
The closest relatives of the Red Bishop 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 Red Bishop is recorded against all the birds logged in Mkomazi National Park (5 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.
