Red-collared Widowbird (Euplectes ardens) [XC301372]
by id from Nyeri, Kenya (call)
Red-collared Widowbird (Euplectes ardens) [XC280296]
by Faansie Peacock from Pretoriuskop area, Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga, South Africa (call)
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-shouldered 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