# Southern red bishop (*Euplectes orix*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/southern-red-bishop  
Data as of: 2026-11-13

The southern red bishop (Euplectes orix) is a bird in the family Ploceidae, order Passeriformes, placed in the group of songbirds and other perching birds. It is a small, sedentary, terrestrial bird, and adults typically weigh about 23 g. Its diet category is granivore, its habitat is grassland, and its IUCN Red List category is Least Concern.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 20.7 g – 25.5 g |
| Length | 10 cm – 11 cm |
| Lifespan | Not recorded |
| Diet | Granivore |
| Main food | seeds |
| Habitat | grassland |
| Egg incubation | 12.5 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 3.1 – 3.2 |
| Reproduction | Eggs |
| Lifestyle | Terrestrial |
| Migration | Sedentary |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | Not recorded |

## Introduced range

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists it as introduced in 7 countries, and flagged as invasive in 2 of them. Introduced: Bahrain, Belgium, Canary Islands, Japan, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom. Invasive: Canary Islands, Japan. Source: https://griis.org/ (CC BY 4.0).

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Passeriformes
- family: Ploceidae
- genus: Euplectes
- species: *Euplectes orix* (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms: *Emberiza orix*, *Euplectes oryx*, *Loxia oryx*, *Loxia tricolor*

## Common questions

### How much does a southern red bishop weigh?

Adults typically weigh about 23 g. Our sources report values from 20.7 g to 25.5 g.

### What habitat does the southern red bishop live in?

It lives in grassland. It is terrestrial and sedentary.

### Is the southern red bishop threatened?

No. Its global IUCN Red List category is Least Concern (LC), which is not a threatened category.

### How many eggs does the southern red bishop lay?

A clutch is 3 eggs, with 3 or 4 reported by our sources. The incubation period is 12 days.

### Who named Euplectes orix?

The scientific name Euplectes orix has the authority (Linnaeus, 1758). The species is in the genus Euplectes, family Ploceidae.

### Is the southern red bishop an invasive species?

In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the southern red bishop as invasive in 2 countries: Canary Islands and Japan. It lists it as introduced in 7 in all.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), CC BY 4.0, v7. Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS)](https://griis.org/), CC BY 4.0, 2026-11-13. Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group.
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Southern red bishop (Euplectes orix). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/southern-red-bishop