{{Short description|Species of bird}} {{Speciesbox | name = Red-headed quelea | image =Red-headed Quelea - Natal - South Africa_S4E7723 (22432117487).jpg | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 12 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=''Quelea erythrops'' |volume=2016 |article-number=e.T22719124A94612649 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22719124A94612649.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}</ref> | genus = Quelea | species = erythrops | authority = (Hartlaub, 1848) | synonyms = }}
The '''red-headed quelea''' ('''''Quelea erythrops''''') is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
== Taxonomy and naming == The red-headed quelea was collected by Carl Weiss on Sao Tome island in 1847, and after its arrival at the Hamburg Museum described for science for the first time by Gustav Hartlaub in 1848, who named it ''Ploceus erythrops''. 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''.<ref>{{cite web|website= The Taxonomicon|title= Scientific name: Queleopsis|url= http://taxonomicon.taxonomy.nl/TaxonList.aspx?subject=Entity&by=ScientificName&search=Queleopsis|access-date= 2017-05-05}}</ref>
The species epithet ''erythrops'' derives from the Greek word ἐρυθρός (eruthros), meaning "red" and ὄψ (ops) meaning "eye" or "face", referring to the rufous or red face. Ludwig Reichenbach gave the species its first English name in 1863: red-headed dioch. Other vernacular names in the English language include pokerhead, and red-headed weaver.<ref>{{cite web|website= Weaver Watch|title= Red-headed Quelea|url= http://weavers.adu.org.za/sp.php?spp=806|access-date= 2017-05-07}}</ref> Its vernacular name in Swahili is ''kwelea kichwa-chekundu''.<ref>{{cite web|website= Avibase|title= Roodkopwever Quelea erythrops|url= https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=F8041931EBD03502|access-date= 2017-05-07}}</ref>
=== Phylogeny === Based on recent DNA-analysis, the red-headed quelea forms a clade with the cardinal quelea (''Q. cardinalis''), and this clade is sister 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 insight of the relationships between the species of ''Quelea'', and their closest relatives.<ref>{{cite journal|first1= Thilina N.|last1= De Silva|first2= A. Townsend|last2= Peterson|first3= John M.|last3= Bates|first4= Sumudu W.|last4= Fernandoa|first5= Matthew G.|last5= Girard|year= 2017|title= Phylogenetic relationships of weaverbirds (Aves: Ploceidae): A first robust phylogeny based on mitochondrial and nuclear markers|journal= Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|volume= 109|pages= 21–32|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.013|pmid= 28012957|bibcode= 2017MolPE.109...21D|s2cid= 205841906}}</ref> {{clade | style=font-size:100%;line-height:120% |1={{clade |1={{clade |label1=genus ''Quelea'' |1={{clade |1= ''Q. quelea'' |2={{clade |1=''Q. cardinalis'' |2='''''Q. erythrops''''' }} }} |2=genus ''Foudia'' }} |2= Asian species of the genus ''Ploceus'' }} }}
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Quelea erythrops}} * Red-headed Quelea - [http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/822.pdf Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds].
{{Ploceidae}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q1301039}}
red-headed quelea Category:Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa Category:Birds of the Gulf of Guinea red-headed quelea Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot