All species › Passerines › Indigobirds and whydahs › Pin-tailed Whydah
Pin-tailed Whydah | Vidua macroura
Dominicanerwida | Viuda colicinta
The Pin-tailed Whydah is a small brood parasite from Africa south of the Sahara that lays its eggs in the nests of estrildid finches. The breeding male is black and white, with a red bill and a tail of about 20 cm. It has been known on Puerto Rico since 1971; it descends from escaped cage birds and is now one of the most widespread introduced birds of the lowlands there.
Voice
The song is a rapid series of squeaky, chirping and sputtering notes, often from a high perch such as a wire or a bare branch. The call is a short, sharp tseet. In display the male hovers above the female, fluttering and bobbing its long tail up and down.
Recording: African Bioacoustics Community — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–33 cm: the female and non-breeding male measure 12–13 cm, the breeding male up to 33 cm, of which about 20 cm is made up by four elongated, narrow black central tail feathers. The breeding male has a black crown and back, a white cheek, collar and underparts, dark brown wings with a white wing patch and a bright red bill. The female and non-breeding male are brown above with dark streaks; the head is buff with black crown stripes, a black eye-stripe and a black moustachial stripe. The underparts are whitish with buff flanks, and these birds also have a red bill. Juveniles are plain grey-brown with a dark bill.
Confusion species
The breeding male has no similar species in the region. Females and non-breeding birds resemble those of Northern Red Bishop Euplectes franciscanus and Yellow-crowned Bishop Euplectes afer, but these have a horn-coloured bill and a less boldly marked head. Orange-cheeked Waxbill Estrilda melpoda and Common Waxbill Estrilda astrild also have red bills, but are smaller, with an unstreaked back and plain or finely barred plumage.
Habitat
Open grassland with short grass, lawns, pastures, roadsides, field margins, gardens and dry scrub, mainly in the lowlands. It eats small seeds picked up from the ground. The female lays her eggs in the nests of estrildid finches, especially waxbills and other introduced finches; the young are raised alongside those of the hosts. The male defends a territory and chases off other small birds.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
On Puerto Rico common and widespread in the lowlands, most numerous in the south-west around La Parguera and Lajas; also on Vieques. Elsewhere in the region only single, probably escaped birds have been reported. Native to almost all of Africa south of the Sahara; also introduced to California, Singapore and Portugal.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
On Puerto Rico in the south-west, around La Parguera and elsewhere in Lajas municipality, on roadsides, lawns and open grassland. Breeding males often perch on roadside wires and can be recognised from afar by the long tail during display flights.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened. An introduced species in the Caribbean. On Puerto Rico it parasitises mainly other introduced estrildid finches; little is known about its effects on native birds.
Scientific name
Vidua macroura | (Pallas, 1764)
Pallas described the species in 1764 as Fringilla (macroura); because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Vidua was introduced in 1816 by Cuvier, GLCFD. Vidua is the Latin word for 'widow'. macroura is Greek, from makros 'long' and oura 'tail', after the male's greatly elongated tail feathers. The specimen the first description was based on came from Angola.