Euplectes axillaris
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The fan-tailed widowbird (Euplectes axillaris), also known as the red-shouldered widowbird, is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae, which is native to grassy and swampy areas of the tropical and subtropical Afrotropics.
It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
(Fan-tailed widowbird = ) Red-shouldered widowbird - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Widowbird sighting in Tarangire National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 370th most-seen of the 411 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 Fan-tailed Widowbird in Tarangire National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
23rd of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Fan-tailed Widowbird sightings, Tarangire National Park ranks 23rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania, about 20%), iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, about 20%) and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (South Africa, about 20%).
Same genus: Euplectes
The closest relatives of the Fan-tailed Widowbird that you can see in Tarangire National Park (genus Euplectes, Bishops and Widowbirds) are White-winged Widowbird (about 20%), Red Bishop (about 10%) and Black Bishop (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fan-tailed Widowbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Tarangire National Park (9 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.
