Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda.
Vagrant to Mali.
Western Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia east to southern Togo, southern Benin, southern Nigeria, Bioko I (Fernando Póo), southern Cameroon, south-western Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, north, eastern and south-western PRCongo, north-western and western Angola (Cabinda; Uí south to Cuanza Sul), also much of DRCongo (except extreme northern and southern and south-east), extreme south-western Sudan, western and southern Uganda, extreme western Kenya (Kakamega and Nyandoro) and extreme north-western Tanzania (Bukoba).
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Red-headed Malimbe (Malimbus rubricollis) [XC295388]
by \u00c9tienne Leroy from Parc National du Banco, Ivory Coast (song)
Red-headed Malimbe (Malimbus rubricollis) [XC706073]
by Andr\u00e1s Schmidt from Kakum Canopy Walkway, Ghana (song)
Subspecies
Several subspecies proposed, including nigeriae (from Iju, near Lagos, in Nigeria), rufovelatus (from Bioko I), centralis (described from Ndussuma, in Ituri district of north-eastern DRCongo) and praedi (from N'Dalatando, in western Angola). However, these are separated by only slight differences in size, and variation in other characters considered trivial.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
bartletti Sharpe, 1890 - Western Guinea to Togo.
nigeriae Bannerman, 1921 - Benin to southern Nigeria (east to Niger delta).
rubricollis (Swainson, 1838) - Western, central.
rufovelatus (Fraser, 1843) - Bioko (Gulf of Guinea).
praedi Bannerman, 1921 - Angola (Uige, Cuanza Norte and Cuanza Sul).
centralis Reichenow, 1893 - Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and western Kenya.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet