Red-billed quelea Red-billed quelea The red-billed quelea (; "Quelea quelea"), also known as the red-billed weaver or red-billed dioch, is a small—approximately long and weighing —migratory, sparrow-like bird of the weaver family, Ploceidae, native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It was named by Linnaeus in 1758, who considered it a bunting, but Ludwig Reichenbach assigned it in 1850 to the new genus "Quelea". Three subspecies are recognised, with "Quelea quelea quelea" occurring roughly from Senegal to Chad, "Q. q. aethiopica" from Sudan to Somalia and Tanzania, and "Q. q. lathamii" from Gabon to Mozambique and South Africa. Non-breeding birds have light underparts, striped brown
Red-headed quelea 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. Red-headed quelea The red-headed quelea ("Quelea erythrops") is a