Northern Red Bishop
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| Northern Red Bishop | ||||||||||||||
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| Euplectes orix (Linnaeus, 1758) |
The Northern Red Bishop ( Euplectes orix) is a resident breeding bird species in most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
This common weaver occurs in a range of open country, especially tall grassland and often near water. It builds a spherical woven nest in tall grass. 2-4 eggs are laid.
The Northern Red Bishop is a stocky 13-15cm bird. The breeding male is scarlet apart from his black head and waistcoat, and brown wings and tail. The conical bill is thick and black. He displays prominently, singing high-pitched squeaks from tall grass, puffing out his feathers or performing a slow hovering display flight.
The non-breeding male is pale yellow-brown, streaked above and shading to whitish below. It has a buff supercilium. Females are similar, but smaller. Young birds have wider pale fringes on their flight feathers.
The Northern Red Bishop is a gregarious species which feeds on seed, grain and some insects, all the time making a thin tsip call.
Reference
- Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1