The yellow-crowned bishop (Euplectes afer) is a species of passerine bird in the family Ploceidae native to Africa south of the Sahara. It is highly sexually dimorphic in its breeding season, during which the male adopts a distinctive yellow and black plumage, contrasting with the female's predominantly brown coloration. Four subspecies are recognised.
The yellow-crowned bishop is native to the African countries of: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, RCongo, DRCongo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It has been introduced in the following countries: Jamaica, Japan, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Spain, and Venezuela. Escaped males have been noted in southern California, where they defended territories. It prefers habitats such as grasslands, vleis, and pans. It likes wheat and sorghum fields, and weedy vegetation along wetlands.
