Long-tailed Widowbird
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The long-tailed widowbird (''Euplectes progne'') is a species of bird in the weaver family
Ploceidae Ploceidae is a family of small passerine birds, many of which are called weavers, weaverbirds, weaver finches, or bishops. These names come from the nests of intricately woven vegetation created by birds in this family. In most recent classificat ...
.Mackworth-Praed, C.W., and C.H. Grant. (1960). ''Birds of Eastern and North Eastern Africa''. Longmans, Green and Co LTD.; London The species is found in
Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...
,
Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
,
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
,
Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
,
Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...
, and
Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
.Hall, B. P. and R. E. Moreau. (1970). An atlas of speciation in African passerine birds. British Museum of Natural History, London. The long-tailed widowbird is a medium-sized bird and one of the most common in the territories it inhabits.Andersson, M. (1982). "Female choice selects for extreme tail length in a widowbird." ''Nature'', 299: 818–820. Adult breeding males are almost entirely black with orange and white shoulders ("epaulets"), long, wide tails, and a bluish white bill. Females are rather inconspicuous, their feathers streaked tawny and black with pale patches on the chest, breast and back, narrow tail feathers, and horn-coloured bills. When flying, male long-tailed widowbirds are readily visible due to their extremely long tails. Between six and eight of their twelve tail feathers are approximately half a metre (approximately 20 inches) long. The tail during flight display is expanded vertically into a deep, long keel below the male as he flies with slow wingbeats 0.5 to 2 metres (20 to 78 inches) above his territory. Because of the seemingly large cost to such male ornaments, the long-tailed widowbird has been the subject of extensive research into the function and evolution of sexually selected traits. This research has demonstrated the existence of female choice in sexual selection and indicates the trade-offs between sexual appeal and physical constraints with regard to the evolution of sexual ornaments.


Taxonomy

The long-tailed widowbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his '' Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' from a bird collected in the
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...
region of South Africa. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'' which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name ''Emberiza progne'' in his catalogue of the ''Planches Enluminées''. The long-tailed widowbird is now one of 17 species placed in the
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
'' Euplectes'' that was introduced by the English naturalist
William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...
in 1829. The genus name combines the
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
''eu'' "fine" or "good" and the
Neo-Latin Neo-LatinSidwell, Keith ''Classical Latin-Medieval Latin-Neo Latin'' in ; others, throughout. (also known as New Latin and Modern Latin) is the style of written Latin used in original literary, scholarly, and scientific works, first in Italy d ...
''plectes'' "weaver". The specific ''progne'' is Latin for a "swallow. Three
subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
are recognised: * ''E. p. delamerei'' ( Shelley, 1903) – central Kenya * ''E. p. delacouri'' Wolters, 1953 – Angola, south DR Congo and Zambia * ''E. p. progne'' ( Boddaert, 1783) – southeast Botswana to east South Africa The long-tailed widowbird has three geographically differentiated subspecies. These include ''delamerei'', found in the highlands of Kenya, ''delacouri'', found in the Congo, Angola and Zambia, and ''progne'', found in Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho. Some researchers have suggested the existence of long-tailed widowbird superspecies based on similarity in male nuptial plumage such as tail length, but this is the topic of some debate.


Description

Long-tailed widowbirds exhibit distinct
sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...
. Males and females exhibit differences in behaviour and morphological traits. Adult males are entirely black, including under their wing-coverts. Males' wing shoulders are orange red and their wing-coverts white. Their bills are bluish white. Males are known for their distinctly long tails, which contain twelve tail feathers. Of these twelve tail feathers, between six and eight are approximately half a metre (approximately 20 inches) long. Males have wingspans of approximately 127 to 147 mm (approximately 5 to 5.8 inches). Females have a rather subdued colours. The upper portion of the female's body is streaked with buff or tawny and black. Female chests, breasts and flanks are slightly paler than their above colouring. The area under the wing-coverts is black and the females' tail feathers are narrow and pointed. Finally, their bills are horn-coloured. Non-breeding males are slightly larger than females, though they demonstrate a remarkably similar appearance. For the most part, these males are coloured in the same manner as the females, except in that they are more broadly streaked above and below and have wings and wing shoulders with the morphology of the breeding class of males. Rarely, males in the non-breeding class have elongated brownish black tail feathers, though these feathers are substantially shorter than those of the breeding class. Immature males and females are very similar in appearance to the adult female. However, immature males, much like adult non-breeding males, are slightly larger than adult females. The length of a female starts at 15 cm and males have been recorded at 71 cm in length, which has their tail included. Male weigh between 33–46 g and females weigh between 25–39 g.


Distribution and habitat

There are three known isolated populations of long-tailed widowbirds. The first is found in the Kenyan highlands, the second in
Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...
, southern
Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...
and
Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
, and the third in
southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...
. It is unknown when these populations were last in contact, however, and the central population differs most in morphology relative to the other two populations.Craig, A. (1980) "Behaviour and evolution in the genus Euplectes." '' Journal of Ornithology'', 121: 144–161. The southern African population extends from the
Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...
(Transkei region) through the Free State, Lesotho,
KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...
, and western Eswatini to the Transvaal plateau. The species just enters southeastern
Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
, but is most commonly found in the central highveld of South Africa. Long-tailed widowbirds are generally found in swampy grassland in flocks consisting of one or two males and a number of females. The males fly with their tails drooping and somewhat spread, and with slow regular movements of their wings. In wet weather, they are unable to fly due to their elongated tails. During the non-breeding season, long-tailed widowbirds congregate into flocks, which can be found roosting in reed beds. The long-tailed widowbird can be found at elevations up to 2,750 metres (9,022 feet) in the Drakensberg Mountains.Andersson, Malte. (1994). ''Sexual Selection''. Princeton University Press; Princeton, NJ: pp. 112–117.


Behaviour


Food and feeding

The long-tailed widowbird's diet generally consists of seeds, supplemented occasionally by arthropods. The birds do most of their foraging in flocks on the ground, though they are occasionally observed hawking insects airily. The long-tailed widowbird feeds on a distinct variety of seeds, including those of '' Setaria sphacelata'' (twisted-leaf bristle grass), '' Paspalum dilatatum'' (common paspalum), ''
Paspalum distichum ''Paspalum distichum'' is a species of Poaceae, grass. Common names include knotgrass, water finger-grass, couch paspalum, eternity grass, gingergrass, and Thompson grass. Its native range is obscure because it has long been present on most conti ...
'' (couch paspalum), '' Pennisetum clandestinum'' (Kikuyu grass), '' Triticum'' (wheat), '' Themeda triandra'' (rooigras), and '' Senecio juniperinus'' (groundsel). They also feed upon both insects, including species of beetles ( Coleoptera), cicadas and aphids (
Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...
), and spiders.


Breeding

Males defend territories in the
grasslands A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur ...
the species inhabits. Females have a long nesting period and survey these territories and the males that inhabit them prior to mate selection. Breeding takes place from February to July, reaching its peak in March and April. Females weave nests, shaped in large dome structures with a lining of seedheads, in the high grass within males' territories. The nests are placed 0.5–1 meters (19 to 40 inches) off the ground in the upper third of the high grass ('' Eleusine jaegeri''), where the females raise their two to three young. Females often mate with the male within whose territories they nest. Females lay one to three eggs after mating, and these are pale bluish green and streaked with brown. They are usually around 23.5 millimeters (0.9 inches) by 16.5 mm (0.6 inches) in size.


Sexual selection

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 â€“ 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
first expressed his ideas on sexual selection and
mate choice Mate choice is one of the primary mechanisms under which evolution can occur. It is characterized by a "selective response by animals to particular stimuli" which can be observed as behavior.Bateson, Paul Patrick Gordon. "Mate Choice." Mate Choi ...
in his book '' The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' in 1871 in response to questions surrounding the elaborate ornamentation that males of some species exhibit despite detrimental costs to survival and seemingly negative consequences for reproductive success.Darwin, C. (1871). ''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex''. John Murray; London. He proposed two explanations for such traits' existences: these traits are useful in male-male combat or are preferred by females. Relative to the first of Darwin's theories on sexual selection, the process of female choice, though theoretically plausible, took a considerable amount of time to gain acceptance because Darwin had little, if any, firm evidence that females did in fact choose mates based on characteristics they found attractive. It took ninety years after Darwin's initial proposal for the theory to be tested in what has become a classic example of behavioural ecology research.Davies N, Krebs J, and West S. (2012). ''An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology'', 4th Ed. Wiley-Blackwell; Oxford: pp. 188–192. The male long-tailed widowbird has one of the most remarkable ornaments among
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 generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...
birds. Their tails, which are often more than half a meter (20 inches) long, are the most extreme sexual ornament among ''Euplectes'' and seem to in fact be detrimental to the survival of the male. Thus, the tail appears to oppose forces of natural selection in the basic sense by decreasing survival in individuals who carry the trait. It was for this reason that researchers have chosen to focus their research into female choice on the confusing example of the long-tailed widowbird.


Andersson experiment

Malte Andersson and colleagues tested Darwin's (and Fisher's) theory of female preference for ornamentation as the cause of extreme elongation of the male long-tailed widowbird's tail. They changed the length of males' tails and studied their relative mating success. Early in the breeding season, the territories of thirty-six males were mapped and the numbers of nests were counted. The experimenters used each male as his own control by subtracting the number of nests in each male's territory before treatment from the total of nests after treatment. This reduced the influence of initial variation among male territories on the outcome of the experiment. In a randomised block experiment, the colour-ringed males were partitioned among nine groups of four males each. These groups were similar in territory quality and tail length. The tail of one randomly selected male within each group was cut to about 14 centimeters (5 inches) in length. Each removed feather was then glued to the corresponding feather of another male, elongating his tail by 20 to 30 centimetres (8 to 12 inches). The two other males in the group served as controls. One had his tail cut and repaired using glue, while the other's tail was left unchanged. A clear pattern of success emerged, with males with the elongated tails being the most successful, followed by the control (normal tail length) males, followed by the males with shortened tails. The result indicated that the long tail is favoured by sexual selection through female choice of mates. Female preference for long tails is also seen in the red-collared widowbird.Pryke, S., Andersson, S. and Lawes, M. (2001). "Sexual Selection of Multiple Handicaps in the Red-Collared Widowbird: Female Choice of Tail Length but not Carotenoid Display". ''Evolution'' 55 (7): 1452–1463 The Andersson experiment demonstrated that female long-tailed widowbirds prefer supernormal tails, as males with elongated tails were found to be the most reproductively successful. The tail females found most attractive were longer than those that occur in the natural setting. This outcome was shown to be the result of female choice rather than differences in male behaviour resulting from shortened tails: males with shortened tails neither became less active in courtship display, nor did they give up their breeding territories. Thus, the tail is used to attract females rather than in direct contests among males, which is further supported by the fact that males do not expand their tails during flight displays during territorial contests.


Males' tail and epaulet

Shoulder epaulet of breeding male One explanation for why females favour long tails in males is that the expanded tail enlarges the lateral surface area of the male by 2–3 times, making him much more visible from far distances over open grassland. However, this is most likely not the whole explanation, especially considering that prior to mating, females spend a great deal of time comparing males and, thus, do not rely on sighting them from a distance. As of this time, the exact function of epaulet in male long-tailed widowbirds is unknown. However, its use does resemble that of the red-winged blackbird, being displayed during courtship and threat displays. Thus, the two most conspicuous ornaments of the male birds in the two species may be favoured by different forms of sexual selection: the tail of the long-tailed widowbird by female choice and the brightly coloured epaulets of the long-tailed widowbird and red-winged blackbird by male contest competition.


Conservation status

The long-tailed widowbird has a very large range, and so the species would not be classified as vulnerable under the range size criterion put forward by BirdLife International which include that the extent of occurrence being less than 20,000 km2 (7722 miles2) combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation.BirdLife International. (2012). Species factsheet: Euplectes progne. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 15/12/2012. The population is stable according to the population trend criterion, which requires a greater than 30% decline over ten years or three generations, and would not be considered vulnerable for this reason. While the total population size has not yet been quantified, it is not believed that the long-tailed widowbird is approaching the threshold for being considered vulnerable under the population size criterion (less than 10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be greater than 10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as least concern.


Gallery

Female Long-tailed Widowbird.jpeg, Female Euplectes progne.jpg, Immature male beginning to transition to adult plumage Longtailed Widowbird, Euplectes progne changing from winter to summer breading plumage at Rietvlei Nature Reserve, South Africa (10073140484).jpg, Further transition into adult plumage Male Long-tailed Widowbird.jpeg, Breeding male on territory


References


External links

* Long-tailed widow â€
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q577664 long-tailed widowbird Birds of East Africa Birds of Southern Africa long-tailed widowbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot long-tailed widowbird