Euplectes capensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The yellow bishop (Euplectes capensis), also known as Cape bishop, Cape widow or yellow-rumped widow, is a resident breeding Afromontane bird species. This common weaver occurs in less arid vegetated areas, such as fynbos, moist grassland and bracken-covered valleys at altitudes from sea level to the Ethiopian Highlands.
In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the yellow bishop in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope. He used the French name Le pinçon du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Fringilla Capitis Bonae Spei. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the yellow bishop. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Loxia capensis and cited Brisson's work. The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope. This species is now placed in the genus Euplectes... Wikipedia →
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-rumped Widowbird sighting in West Coast National Park on a given day, based on 473 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 59th most-seen of the 192 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-rumped Widowbird in West Coast National Park on a given day, against about 10% in April, the lowest month. That is one of West Coast National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 70 mm in June.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-rumped 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.
Among the best
Of the 30 parks where we can rate Yellow-rumped Widowbird sightings, West Coast National Park ranks 2nd at about 40%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Golden Gate Highlands National Park (South Africa, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-rumped Widowbird is recorded against all the birds logged in West Coast National Park (473 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.
