The cardinal quelea ( Quelea cardinalis) is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae.
It is found in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Description
The cardinal quelea is a small (about long) sparrow-like bird with a short heavy black bill, that breeds in colonies. The male in breeding plumage has a red head extending onto the breast but not onto the streaked nape. The female has a yellowish face, brow stripes and throat. The non-breeding plumage of the male resembles that of the female, but retains some red on its head.
Taxonomy
Gustav Hartlaub was the first to describe the cardinal quelea, giving it the scientific name
Hyphantica cardinalis in 1880, based on specimens that were collected by
Emin Pasha near Lado in South-Sudan during 1879.
In 1951, Hans von Boetticher regarded the cardinal quelea and red-headed quelea sufficiently different from the red-billed quelea to create a new genus
Queleopsis.
Its name in
Swahili language is
kwelea kidari-chekundu.
Phylogeny
Based on recent
DNA phenotyping, the red-headed quelea forms a clade with the cardinal quelea, and this clade is
sister group to the red-billed quelea
Q. quelea. The genus
Quelea belongs to the group of true weavers (subfamily Ploceinae), and is most related to
Foudia, a genus of six or seven species that occur on the islands of the western Indian Ocean. This clade is sister to the Asian species of the genus
Ploceus. The following tree represents current insights in the relationships between the species of
Quelea, and their closest relatives.
External links
