Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sâo Tomé e Principe (B), Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Niger.
Southern Mauritania, Gambia, northern and south-western Senegal, central and southern Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast east to extreme south-western Niger, central Nigeria, Cameroon, Sío Tomé, northern and southern Central African Republic, south-western and south-eastern Chad, south-western and southern Sudan and south-western Ethiopia, southern discontinuously to Gabon, PRCongo, DRCongo (except central forested region), Uganda, western and south-eastern Kenya, western Rwanda, western Burundi, much of Tanzania (including Zanzibar and Pemba I), northern and western Angola, Zambia, Malawi, northern and eastern Zimbabwe and central Mozambique.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Black-winged Red Bishop (Euplectes hordeaceus) [XC390750]
by Barry Edmonston from Karfiguela, Como\u00e9, Burkina Faso (song)
Black-winged Red Bishop (Euplectes hordeaceus) [XC336076]
by \u00c9tienne Leroy from Palmci estate, Boubo, Sud-Bandama, Ivory Coast (song)
Subspecies
Sometimes placed with Golden-backed Bishop (Euplectes aureus) and Black Bishop (Euplectes gierowii) in a separate genus, Groteiplectes. In captivity, reported as having hybridized with Red-collared Widowbird (Euplectes ardens) and "red bishop", probably Orange Bishop (Euplectes franciscanus). Birds in north-east of range sometimes separated as subspecies craspedopterus (described from Ethiopia), supposedly differing in having pale (not black) undertail-coverts, but variation individual, rather than regional, and naming of geographical subspecies considered unwarranted.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
hordeaceus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Widespread Africa south of the Sahara (except South Africa).
craspedopterus Bonaparte, 1850 - Southern Sudan, south-western Ethiopia, Uganda and western Kenya.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet