Pin-tailed Whydah
Vidua macroura
LCLeast Concern
- Family
- Whydahs and Indigobirds (Viduidae)
- Order
- Passeriformes
Overview
The pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macroura) is a small songbird with a conspicuous pennant-like tail in breeding males. It is a resident breeding bird in most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Very widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, from southern Mauritania eastward to Eritrea, southward to South Africa; introduced in the southern USA (California, Florida) and the Caribbean (Puerto Rico).
Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.
Countries
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Côte d'Ivoire
- DR Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Pin-tailed whydah
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.
