The yellow-crowned bishop is a species of passerine bird in the family Ploceidae native to Africa south of the Sahara. It is highly sexually dimorphic in its breeding season, during which the male adopts a distinctive yellow and black plumage, contrasting with the female's predominantly brown coloration. Four subspecies are recognised.
Region
Sub-Saharan Africa
Typical Environment
Occurs widely from West Africa across the Sahel and savannas to East Africa, and south to northern and eastern South Africa. It favors seasonally flooded grasslands, marsh edges, wet savannas, and the margins of lakes, rivers, rice paddies, and sugarcane fields. Common in tall grasses, sedges, and reeds where it nests and forages, but also uses open farmland and fallow fields. Outside the breeding season it forms nomadic flocks that track seeding grasses and may aggregate in large numbers. Small introduced populations are also established on some Caribbean islands (e.g., Puerto Rico).
Altitude Range
0–2500 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 3/5
This small weaver is strikingly sexually dimorphic in the breeding season: males turn black with a vivid yellow crown, rump, and shoulder patches, while females remain brown and streaked. Males perform buoyant display flights and puff their plumage into a round, ‘ball-like’ shape to attract females. They are polygynous, with males weaving multiple oval nests in tall grasses or reeds near water. Outside the breeding season, males molt into cryptic brown plumage and join large seed-eating flocks.
Temperament
social and active
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats with bouncing display flights
Social Behavior
Often breeds colonially in wet grasslands where males hold small territories and weave several nests to court multiple females. Polygynous mating system; females perform most incubation and chick-rearing. Outside breeding, they form mixed-sex flocks that move widely in search of seeding grasses.
Migratory Pattern
Partial migrant
Song Description
Vocalizations are a series of dry buzzes, sizzles, and sharp tsit notes, especially during male display flights. Songs are brief and interspersed with mechanical-sounding trills and chips from exposed perches.
