Pin-tailed Whydah

Vidua macroura

SUBFAMILY

Viduinae

TAXONOMY

Fringilla macroura Pallas, 1764, 'East Indies' = Angola.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: King-of-six; French: Veuve dominicaine; German: Dominikanerwitwe; Spanish: Viuda de Cola Aguda.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

4.7–5.1 in (12–13 cm), male with long tail 10.2–13.4 in (26–34 cm); female 0.5–0.6 oz (14–16 g), male 0.5–0.7 oz (14–19 g). Female and non-breeding male, brownish upperparts with broad black stripes on top of head, buff to white underparts. Bill brownish red. Breeding male, black and white with four long, black central tail feathers. Bill bright red. Juvenile plain brown above, buff below.

DISTRIBUTION

Sub-Saharan Africa. Introduced to Hawaii but apparently now extinct.

HABITAT

Open savanna and grassland, farmland, gardens.

BEHAVIOR

Male sings from perch, but does not imitate songs of host species. When female arrives, bounces in the air with tail flipping up and down while singing. Aggressive towards other males, but also to other species. Non-breeding birds gregarious, forming small flocks of 20–30 birds, often mixed with other small seed-eaters.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Mainly seeds, also some insects. Collects most food on the ground. Scratches with backward hops to unearth buried seeds.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Brood parasite, polygynous. Lays one to two eggs per nest, removing host egg for each egg added. Incubation about 11 days, fledging about 20 days. Most frequent host is common waxbill (Estrilda astrild), also other waxbills and occasionally warblers. Host and parasite young reared together.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened; widespread and common.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known; annoys those who put out birdseed, as breeding male pin-tailed whydah will attempt to drive all other birds away from feeding site.

Pin-tailed Whydah
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Viduidae
Genus:	Vidua
Species:	V. macroura
Binomial name
Vidua macroura (Pallas, 1764)

The Pin-tailed Whydah, Vidua macroura, is a small songbird. It is a resident breeding bird in most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert.

This whydah is found in many open habitats including open woodland, scrub and cultivation.

It is a brood parasite which lays its eggs in the nests of estrildid finches, especially waxbills. Unlike the Common Cuckoo, it does not destroy the host's eggs. Typically, 2-4 eggs are added to those already present. The eggs of both the host and the firefinch are white, although the whydah's are slightly larger. The nestling whydahs mimic the gape pattern of the fledglings of the host species.

Vidua macroura - male with breeding plumage

The Pin-tailed Whydah is 12-13 cm in length, although the breeding male's tail adds another 20cm to this. The adult male has a black back and crown, and a very long black tail. The wings are dark brown with white patches, and the underparts and the head, apart from the crown, are white. The bill is bright red.

The female and non-breeding male have streaked brown upperparts, whitish underparts with buff flanks, and a buff and black face pattern. They lack the long tail extension, but retain the red bill. Immature birds are like the female but plainer and with a greyish bill.

The male Pin-tailed Whydah is territorial, and one male often has several females in his small group. He has an elaborate courtship flight display, which includes hovering over the female to display his tail. The song is given from a high perch, and consists of rapid squeaking and churring. The diet of this species consists of seeds and grain.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Vidua macroura. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
• Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1

External links

• Pin-tailed Whydah videos, photos & sounds on the Internet Bird Collection

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