''Euplectes'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the weaver family, Ploceidae. It contains the bishops and widowbirds. They are all native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

south of the Sahara. It is believed that all birds in the genus are probably polygynous. The genus ''Euplectes'' was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1829 with the

southern red bishop The southern red bishop or red bishop (''Euplectes orix'') is a small passerine bird belonging to the bishop and widowbird genus '' Euplectes'' in the weaver family, the Ploceidae. It is common in wetlands and grassland in Africa south of the Eq ...

as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

. The name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''eu'' "fine" or "good" and the

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

''plectes'' "weaver". When choosing their mates, females within this genus will often choose males with longer tail lengths, even in species with comparatively shorter tail lengths.

Species

The genus contains 17 species.

Aviculture

The yellow-crowned bishop and northern red bishop are popular in

aviculture Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds, especially of wild birds in captivity. Types There are various reasons that people get involved in aviculture. Some people breed birds to preserve a species. Some people breed parrots ...

References

External links

* * Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Ploceidae-stub