Cardinal quelea quelea, 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 insights in the relationships between the species of "Quelea", and their closest relatives. Cardinal quelea The cardinal quelea ("Quelea cardinalis") is a species of bird in the Ploceidae family. It is found in Burundi, Democratic Republic
Red-billed quelea during flooding. It needs shrubs, reeds or trees to nest and roost. Red-billed queleas migrate seasonally over long distances in anticipation of the availability of their main natural food source, seeds of annual grasses. The presence of these grass seeds is the result of the beginning of rains weeks earlier, and the rainfall varies in a seasonal geographic pattern. The temporarily wet areas do not form a single zone that periodically moves back and forth across the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa, but rather consist of five or six regions, within which the wet areas "move" or "jump". Red-billed quelea populations