Red-billed quelea collected from under large roosts in Nigeria and used as a fertiliser. Tourists like to watch the large flocks of queleas, such as during visits of the Kruger National Park. The birds themselves eat pest insects such as migratory locusts, and the moth species "Helicoverpa armigera" and "Spodoptera exempta". The animal's large distribution and population resulted in a conservation status listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List. The red-billed quelea is sometimes kept and bred in captivity by hobbyists. It thrives if kept in large and high cages, with space to fly to minimise the risk of obesity.
Red-headed quelea 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". 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. Its vernacular name in Swahili is "kwelea kichwa-chekundu". Based