Red-billed quelea closely related to the fodies ("Foudia"), a genus of six or seven species that occur on the islands of the western Indian Ocean. These two genera are in turn the sister clade 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. Interbreeding between red-billed and red-headed queleas has been observed in captivity. The red-billed quelea is a small sparrow-like bird, approximately long and weighing , with a heavy, cone-shaped bill, which is red (in females outside the breeding season and males) or orange
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