Euplectes afer
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The yellow-crowned bishop (Euplectes afer) is a species of passerine bird in the family Ploceidae native to Africa south of the Sahara. It is highly sexually dimorphic in its breeding season, during which the male adopts a distinctive yellow and black plumage, contrasting with the female's predominantly brown coloration. Four subspecies are recognised.
The yellow-crowned bishop 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 afra. The specific epithet is from Latin afer meaning "Africa". Gmelin based his account on the "Black-bellied grossbeak" that had been described and illustrated in 1776 by the English naturalist Peter Brown. Gmelin specified the location as Africa but this was restricted to Senegal by Claude Grant and Cyril Mackworth-Praed in 1944. The yellow-crowned bishop is now one of 18 species placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced in 1829 by the English naturalist William Swainson.
A molecular genetic study published in 2019 found that within the genus Euplectes... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 4 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 7 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 8 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 10 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Lisbon | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 5 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | ZooParc de Beauval | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Antwerp Zoo | 🇧🇪 Belgium | |
| 4 | Zoo Pilsen | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 5 | Walsrode World Bird Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | San Diego Zoo Safari Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Chester Zoo | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 8 | Dierenpark Hoenderdaell | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 9 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 11 | Aquatopia | 🇧🇪 Belgium | |
| 12 | Landgoed Hoenderdaell | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-crowned Bishop sighting in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 473rd most-seen of the 519 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-crowned Bishop in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-crowned 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.
8th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Yellow-crowned Bishop sightings, Ngorongoro Conservation Area ranks 8th at under 5%. The best odds are in Amboseli National Park (Kenya, about 10%), Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 10%) and Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe, under 5%).
Same genus: Euplectes
The closest relatives of the Yellow-crowned Bishop that you can see in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are Fan-tailed Widowbird (about 20%), Red Bishop (about 10%) and Red-collared Widowbird (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-crowned Bishop is recorded against all the birds logged in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (10 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.
