Southern Red Bishop Euplectes orix

Identification The Southern Red Bishop Euplectes orix breeding male is brightly coloured with black and red, and has a short tail. The combination of black mask and abdomen, with the crown, throat, breast, rump, upper and under tail coverts red, distinguishes the Southern Red Bishop from other red and black bishops. Females, non-breeding males and young birds are dull coloured and difficult to distinguish from other bishops and widows.

The Southern Red Bishop was well known to early travellers and writers. For instance, in 1816 George Shaw wrote: “This species is gregarious, and builds its nest in large societies, among the reeds, near the rivers and ponds in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena: the appearance of these birds among the reeds is said to have a most beautiful effect, from the brilliancy of their colours.”

Distribution The Southern Red Bishop is a conspicuous wetland species in southern and East Africa (see map above, based on Birds of Africa). Several subspecies of the Southern Red Bishop have been proposed in the past, but none are currently recognised since populations are not reliably separable on measurements nor on plumage characters. It has also been introduced to several countries, eg Australia (see here) and St Helena (unsuccessfully).

Habitat This species has increased in numbers due to the building of dams and irrigation canals, and expansion of seed crops. Numbers are reduced, however, where wetlands are drained.

Food The Southern Red Bishop feeds mainly on seeds, and also on insects in summer and when feeding young. 24 seed species, mostly small, were recorded in the Free State, South Africa. Chicks are fed on arthropods including dragonflies, beetles, caterpillars and spiders, and eggshell fragments have been found in chick stomachs. It is a significant crop pest in wheat fields in the south-western Cape, South Africa, where up to 70% of the crop may be destroyed in some fields. Birds generally forage in two sessions daily, morning and late afternoon, and gather in day roosts during the middle of the day.

The oldest bird is over 13 years (see here).

Breeding The Southern Red Bishop is polygynous, with up to 7 females nesting in a male’s territory at any one time, and up to 18 females in a breeding season. It is colonial, with colonies of several hundred nests in reeds; nests are also found in small groups and sometimes a pair nests solitarily. The nest is an oval, with a side entrance under a porch near the top. The nest is tightly woven of thin strips of reed or grass blades, and lined with plant down and grass seed heads. The nest is built by the male and may be completed in a single day, but usually takes 2-3 days. Initially eggs are visible through the weaving, but as the female adds lining during incubation the nest walls become opaque. The average clutch size is 3 eggs, but the mean clutch size is larger in years of heavier rainfall. The female incubates for only 40% during the day, with bouts in the nest of 1-10 minutes and absences of 1-12 minutes.

Some nest predators that have been recorded are water monitor, egg-eating snake, rats, slender mongoose, Cattle Egret and White-browed Coucal. Old nests used by Tawny-flanked Prinia Prinia subflava, Zebra Waxbill Sporaeginthus subflavus and other species. Climbing mice Dendromus mesomelas take over old nests of weavers, including the nests of Southern Red Bishops. The Southern Red Bishop is a major host to the Diderick Cuckoo Chrysococcyx caprius but high rates of brood parasitism are found only at small colonies where all the territory-holders may be absent at the same time (see here).

Breeding season
Apr-Jun in Uganda and Kenya, Jan-Apr in Angola and DRCongo, Mar-May in Rwanda, Feb-May in Tanzania, Dec-Apr in Zambia and Malawi, Feb-Mar in Mozmbique, Feb-May in Namibia, and Dec-Mar in Botswana and Zimbabwe; in South Africa, Jul-Dec in winter-rainfall region of Western Cape, Oct-Mar/Apr in other regions

Nest site
most often placed in reeds, sedges or bulrushes (Typha) standing in water,in Phragmites reedbeds often 2 m above water, but sometimes in maize or other crops in fields, in bamboo or Indigofera thickets, or even in privet (Ligustrum) hedges

Nest building
built by male, female adds lining

Colony size
Often in dense colonies of several hundred birds in reedbeds

Clutch size
typically 3 eggs (mean of 670 clutches in South Africa), some clutches double normal size presumed result of two females laying in same nest

Egg colour
pale bluish-green to turquoise, rarely with few dark spots

Egg size
average size of 268 eggs 19.2 x 14.1 mm (South Africa)

Incubation
incubation by female only, in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) eggs covered for only 40% of daylight hours, incubation period 12-13 days

Chicks and nestling period
chicks fed by female, primarily by regugitation, with seeds from early stage, nestling period 11-15 days, young liable to leave nest after 10 days if disturbed