Euplectes gierowii
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The black bishop (Euplectes gierowii) is a species of passerine bird in the family Ploceidae native to Africa south of the Sahara. Three subspecies are recognised. The black bishop was first described by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1880 and named after H. Gierow, a Swedish explorer and collector in Angola. It is sometimes placed with E. aureus and E. hordeaceus in a separate genus, Groteiplectes.
A study of the molecular phylogeny of bishops and widowbirds published in 2008 found that it formed part of a clade along with the fire-fronted bishop (E. diadematus), black-winged red bishop (E. hordeaceus), northern red bishop (E. franciscanus), southern red bishop (E. orix), Zanzibar red bishop (E. nigroventris) and red-collared widowbird (E. ardens). An alternate common name is Gierow's bishop.
This subspecies is named after its... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lake Manyara National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 4 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 9 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 10 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black Bishop sighting in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, based on 41 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 269th most-seen of the 434 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.
January and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Bishop in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–October and December, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Bishop sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Black Bishop sightings, Queen Elizabeth National Park ranks 7th at under 5%. The best odds are in Lake Manyara National Park (Tanzania, about 40%), Kibale National Park (Uganda, about 10%) and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania, about 10%).
Same genus: Euplectes
The closest relatives of the Black Bishop that you can see in Queen Elizabeth National Park (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are Red Bishop (about 30%), Fan-tailed Widowbird (about 20%) and White-winged Widowbird (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Bishop is recorded against all the birds logged in Queen Elizabeth National Park (41 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.
