Pin-Tailed Whydah

Pin-Tailed Whydah

(it rhymes with Ida)

Noel Laflin

7-2-15

If you are ever out near the south end of the El Modena Pond, look for a magnificent pin-tailed whydah flitting about.  And he does flit – from a tall pine on Earlham to a metal fence post above the pond, to the ground nearby, up to a favorite sycamore tree, to the same spot on a phone line above Jordan Avenue and then back to the tall pine once more.  He is pretty predictable.

You can’t miss him, should your timing be right, as his plumage is black and white, he sports a scissor-like tail three times his body length, and he has a bright red beak.  In other words, he’s perfect.

Originally from Africa, these fellows were brought here as pets several decades ago.  Through either escape or intentional release, their numbers have grown throughout the Southland.  I have read that there are now flocks numbering upwards of twenty-to-fifty pin-tailed whydahs in some northern parts of Orange County; perhaps you have one or two around your home.  More folks are spotting them all the time.

Wikipedia will give you all the details regarding this species; how they lay their eggs in the nests of finches, thus letting foster parents raise their young; their gyrating mating dances; their distinctive chirp.

But I have only recently stumbled across this one graceful, playful male out near my neck of the woods.  But he is enough.