Shaft-tailed Whydah
Vidua regia (Linnaeus, 1766)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The shaft-tailed whydah or queen whydah (Vidua regia) is a small, sparrow-like bird in the genus Vidua. During the breeding season the male has black crown and upper body plumage, golden breast and four elongated black tail shaft feathers with expanded tips. After the breeding season is over, the male sheds its long tail and grows olive brown female-like plumage.
The shaft-tailed whydah is distributed in open habitats and grasslands of Southern Africa, from south Angola to south Mozambique. It is a brood parasite to the violet-eared waxbill. The diet consists mainly of seeds.
Widespread and a common species throughout its large habitat range, the shaft-tailed whydah is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Wikipedia contributors, Shaft-tailed whydah; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:39:02.469584+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Vidua regia (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Name authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Common name
- Shaft-tailed Whydah
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Viduidae
- Genus
- Vidua
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyViduidae
- genusVidua Cuvier, 1816
- speciesVidua regia (Linnaeus, 1766)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Vidua. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Vidua maryae Payne, 1982 | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Sahel Paradise WhydahVidua orientalis Heuglin, 1870 | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Purple IndigobirdVidua purpurascens (Reichenow, 1883) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Exclamatory Paradise WhydahVidua interjecta (Grote, 1922) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Pin-tailed WhydahVidua macroura (Pallas, 1764) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Village IndigobirdVidua chalybeata (Statius Muller, 1776) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Togo Paradise WhydahVidua togoensis (Grote, 1923) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Zambezi IndigobirdVidua codringtoni (Neave, 1907) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Vidua nigeriae (Alexander, 1908) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Broad-tailed Paradise WhydahVidua obtusa (Chapin, 1922) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Long-tailed Paradise WhydahVidua paradisaea (Linnaeus, 1758) | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Jambandu IndigobirdVidua raricola Payne, 1982 | ViduidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=563675 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:5BDB9. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.