Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sâo Tomé e Principe (B), Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (B).
Vagrant to Botswana.
South-western Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, western Mali (Niger floodplain), Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, south-western Burkina Faso and Ghana east to south-western Niger, south-western and north-western Nigeria, central and south-western Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Sío Tomé, western Gabon, south-western PRCongo and inland along R Congo and R Ubangi, southern Central African Republic, western and north-eastern DRCongo, southern Sudan, south-western Ethiopia, western Uganda, western Kenya, central Tanzania, western Rwanda, western Burundi and Malawi; north-western Angola, Zambia, south-eastern Mozambique and eastern coastal South Africa. Occasional in north-eastern Namibia and northern Botswana (Caprivi region) and on Zimbabwean side of R Zambezi.
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Red-headed Quelea (Quelea erythrops) [XC391200]
by id from Maputo, Cidade de Maputo, Mozambique (call)
Red-headed Quelea (Quelea erythrops) [XC391097]
by Gary Allport from Maputo, Cidade de Maputo, Mozambique (call)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Sometimes placed with Cardinal Quelea (Quelea cardinalis) in a separate genus, Queleopsis. Has hybridized with Red-billed Quelea (Quelea quelea) in captivity. Southern populations described as subspecies viniceps, but validity uncertain.