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Long -tailed Paradise Whydah
Vidua paradisaea
Afrikaans Name: Gewone Paradysvink

Identification:A very small bird with measuring length of 11 - 13 cm, non breeding, and during breeding the tail of 23cm is added.
Size comparisson to that of a Sparrow.
Breeding male:
he is mainly black, with the belly and a broad collar on the hindneck in an ochre yellow.
The breast is a chestnut-brown.
His innermost rectrices are very broad, tapering to the filaments, with the next pair of rectrices being broad, long and pointed.

Call:a sharp, chirp callnote, with sparrow-like chirping. It imitates the song of the Melba Finch.

Status:A fairly common resident

Habitat:Acacia savanna, dry open woodlands, cultivated lands and gardens

Habits:Occurs in pairs of up to 60.
Forages on the ground.
Male displays with bouncing upward flight, 20 - 100m above the ground, then levels it off, flying with rapid wingbeats, broad central rectrices raised, long streamers straight out behind and end it off with a swooping descent to perch.
He displays all day long, and only feeds in the evening.

Food:Seeds and insects

Breeding:
The Male is polygamous, meaning: he pairs up in breeding season with a number of different females. Polygynous males invest a little time and effort into parental care as possible, they leave the responsibility of incubating the eggs and raising the chicks to the female. A real
"avian chauvinist"
Breeding season: January - June

Very nicely done, beautiful pics of a BEAUTIFUL bird!!!

Seen recently at Kgomo-kgomo:



Click here for larger image

In my experience a very difficult bird to get close enough to photograph. After years of trying I managed to get relatively close to this male to take a reasonable picture. One click and he was gone.

Great shot very well done!

Long-tailed Paradise Whydah by gwendolen, on Flickr

On our way to Rooibosrand