Vidua macroura
Silhouette: Alan Manson (photo), John E. McCormack, Michael G. Harvey, Brant C. Faircloth, Nicholas G. Crawford, Travis C. Glenn, Robb T. Brumfield & T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macroura) is a small songbird with a conspicuous pennant-like tail in breeding males. It is a resident breeding bird in most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. The pin-tailed whydah was first described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name Fringilla macroura.
The pin-tailed whydah is 12–13 cm in length, although the breeding male's tail adds another 20 cm to this. The adult male has a black back and crown, and a very long black tail. The wings are dark brown with white patches, and the underparts and the head, apart from the crown, are white. The bill is bright red. The female and non-breeding male have streaked brown upperparts, whitish underparts with buff flanks, and a buff and black face pattern. They lack the long tail extension, but retain the red bill. Immature birds are like the female but plainer and with a greyish bill.
The pin-tailed whydah occurs in much of sub-Saharan Africa, favouring grassland, scrubs and savannah, also coming into parks and gardens. In Portugal it is established in the region around Aveiro, with observations occurring... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 5 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 6 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 8 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Zoo Pilsen | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 3 | Toledo Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Bloedel Conservatory | 🇨🇦 Canada |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pin-tailed Whydah sighting in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, based on 86 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 168th most-seen of the 341 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and April–May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Pin-tailed Whydah in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March and July–October, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pin-tailed 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.
30th of 51
Of the 51 parks where we can rate Pin-tailed Whydah sightings, Samburu National Reserve ranks 30th at about 10%. The best odds are in Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda, about 50%), Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda, about 40%) and Mkomazi National Park (Tanzania, about 30%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pin-tailed Whydah is recorded against all the birds logged in Samburu National Reserve (86 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.
