Red-billed Buffalo Weaver (Bubalornis niger) [XC694799]
by GABRIEL LEITE from Mandegee farm, Kenya (call)
Red-billed Buffalo Weaver (Bubalornis niger) [XC346626]
by James Bradley from Roy's Rest Camp, Namibia (call)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with White-billed Buffalo-weaver (Bubalornis albirostris), and previously the two were normally considered conspecific.
Proposed subspecies militaris (described from Luangwa Valley of northern Zambia) is more appropriately lumped within nominate. In the past, subspecies intermedius was on occasion erroneously placed within White-billed Buffalo-weaver (Bubalornis albirostris).
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
niger Smith, 1936 - Western and south-western Angola (including isolated population on Luanda-Bego coastal plain), south-western and eastern Zambia, northern half of Namibia, Botswana, south-western Zimbabwe and south-western Mozambique south to northern provinces of South Africa and northern Swaziland.
intermedius (Cabanis, 1868) - Southern Ethiopia, extreme south-eastern Sudan, north-eastern Uganda (Karamoja), western and southern Somalia and Kenya south to central Tanzania.