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Golden Bishop (Afr: Goudgeelvink)
A small bishop with brilliant yellow and black breeding plumage. Size 9.5-10.5cm - smaller than a Cape Sparrow.
The male Yellow-crowned Bishop is a is a brilliant golden yellow and black. The bill is short, strong and conical. The bill is black in breeding males and horn in females or non-breeding males. The legs and feet are pinkish brown.
The male Yellow-crowned Bishop has a black lower face, throat, breast and belly. It also has a wide black collar on the back of the neck. The crown, forehead and hindcrown are a brilliant yellow. There is a yellow patch on the shoulder, and the rump and back are yellow. The wings and tail are brown.
The female Yellow-crowned Bishop has pale brown upperparts, with darker streaking. The eyebrow is paler and the underparts are off-white with fine dark streaks on the breast and flanks.
This species is found in moist grassland, vleis, seasonally flooded pans and fields of wheat, sorghum. It likes rank, weedy vegetation bordering wetlands and along watercourses.
It is a gregarious species, usually seen in flocks, which usually include a number of males and the drab looking females. In the non-breeding season the males become like the females and they form large flocks, often together with other seed-eating species such as weavers or sparrows.
They eat seeds, grain and insects, which are fed to the young.
The call is a high-pitched, rasping, buzzing swizzling, somewhat insect-like: zzzzzzz, zzit, zzit, zzzz etc.
It nests mainly from December to March. Males are polygynous (have more than one partner), but do not breed in multiple male colonies. Each male builds 2 or more nests to which he attracts breeding partners. Nests are well hidden and usually built in the upright stems of grass or sedge, fairly close to the ground.
The nest is oval shaped with an entrance near the top. The roof is partly built with bent over stems of live grass and these hide the nest effectively.
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