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  Profile

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  In flight

Songbirds

Long-tailed Widowbird

Euplectes progne

• epic
• 28 km/h
• Least Concern

Males fly low over grasslands trailing half-meter tail feathers to impress females. Slowest bird in the sky, best-dressed.

Population

Not numerically quantified by IUCN/BirdLife; described as one of the most common/widespread and locally abundant widowbirds across its range

Habitat

Open swampy and rank grassland, vleis, and grassy hillsides, including montane grassland up to ~2,750 m in the Drakensberg

Fun fact

In a classic 1982 field experiment, ornithologist Malte Andersson artificially lengthened male Long-tailed Widowbird tails and showed that females strongly preferred the longest-tailed males, providing landmark evidence for sexual selection driving extreme ornamentation.

Range

Sub-Saharan Africa in three disjunct populations: central Kenya highlands (E. p. delamerei); southeastern DR Congo, southern Angola, and western/northeastern Zambia (E. p. delacouri); and southeastern Botswana, eastern South Africa, Eswatini, and Lesotho (E. p. progne)

Diet

Primarily grass seeds, supplemented with arthropods such as beetles, cicadas, aphids, and spiders (especially when feeding chicks)

Size

0.71 m

Wingspan

0.14 m

Lifespan

5 years