Yellow-mantled Widowbird (Euplectes macroura)
About the Yellow-mantled Widowbird
The yellow-mantled widowbird (Euplectes macroura), also known as the yellow-backed widow, is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. The yellow-mantled widowbird was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the crossbills in the genus Loxia and coined the binomial name Loxia macroura. Gmelin specified the locality as "Whydah"; this is Ouidah on the coast of Benin in West Africa. The specific epithet is from Ancient Greek makros meaning "long" and -ouros meaning "tailed". The yellow-mantled widowbird is now one of 18 species placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced in 1829 by the English naturalist William Swainson.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 8 recordings for this species: 5 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Yellow BishopEuplectes capensisrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.