Red-collared Widowbird (Euplectes ardens) [XC641925]
by Lynette Rudman from Makana Local Municipality (near Grahamstown), Western District, Eastern Cape, South Africa (song)
Red-collared Widowbird (Euplectes ardens) [XC519635]
by Lynette Rudman from Marshes near Amahlathi Local Municipality (near Stutterheim), Amatole, Eastern Cape, South Africa (song, colony, many males calling and giving song)
Subspecies
Molecular data indicate that this species is a long-tailed bishop, not closely allied to the other widowbirds. Has hybridized in captivity with Red Bishop (Euplectes orix), Black-winged Bishop (Euplectes hordeaceus), Yellow-mantled Widowbird (Euplectes macroura) and Fan-tailed Widowbird (Euplectes axillaris). Subspecies laticauda, segregated altitudinally from nominate in area of range overlap in Sudan, possibly represents a separate species. Further study is required. Males with all-black plumage, occurring through most of range of nominate, formerly recognized as subspecies concolor (described from Sierra Leone), but now considered a melanistic morph; also, intermediates between these two morphs recorded in Angola, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Proposed subspecies tropicus (described from Karema, in Tanzania) considered inseparable from nominate.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
ardens (Boddaert, 1783) - Southern Mali, northern Guinea, inland Sierra Leone, northern Liberia, northern Ivory Coast, south-western Niger, central and south-eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, southern Sudan, southern PRCongo, north-eastern and southern DRCongo, central and north-eastern Angola, Uganda, western Kenya and central and north-eastern Tanzania south to Zambia, Malawi, north-western and southern Mozambique, Zimbabwe (central plateau), Swaziland, Lesotho lowlands and eastern South Africa.
laticauda (Lichtenstein, MHK, 1823) - Highlands of south-eastern Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Red-cowled Widowbird (Euplectes laticauda).
suahelicus (van Someren, 1921) - Highlands of Kenya and Tanzania.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet