quelea

{{Automatic taxobox

| name = Quelea

| image = Red-billed quelea flocking at waterhole.jpg

| image_caption = Red-billed quelea (Quelea quelea)

| taxon = Quelea

| authority = Reichenbach, 1850

| type_species = Loxia sanguinirostris{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=190 |title= Ploceidae |author= |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-16}}

| type_species_authority = Linnaeus, 1766

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

Quelea cardinalis

Quelea erythrops

Quelea quelea

}}

Quelea {{IPAc-en|'|k|w|iː|l|i|ə}} is a genus of small passerine birds that belongs to the weaver family Ploceidae, confined to Africa. These are small-sized, sparrow- or finch-like gregarious birds, with bills adapted to eating seeds. Queleas may be nomadic over vast ranges; the red-billed quelea is said to be the most numerous bird species in the world.{{cite book |last= Sekercioglu |first=Cagan Hakki |year=2006 |chapter=Foreword |title=Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers |editor=Josep del Hoyo |editor2=Andrew Elliott |editor3=David Christie|location=Barcelona |publisher=Lynx Edicions |isbn=978-84-96553-06-4| page=48|title-link=Handbook of the Birds of the World }}

Taxonomy

There are three species:

File:Red-billed Quelea.jpg

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
class="wikitable"
120px	Quelea cardinalis	Cardinal quelea	Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
120px	Quelea erythrops	Red-headed quelea	Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
120px	Quelea quelea	Red-billed quelea	Subsaharan Africa, but absent from Madagascar, and avoiding rainforest, high altitude and South Africa's south coast

= Phylogeny =

Based on recent DNA-analysis, the red-billed quelea is sister to a clade that consist of both remaining species of the genus Quelea, namely Q. cardinalis and Q. erythrops. The genus 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.{{cite journal|first1= Thilina N.|last1= De Silva|first2= A. Townsend|last2= Peterson|first3= John M.|last3= Bates|first4= Sumudu W.|last4= Fernandoa|first5= Matthew G.|last5= Girard|year= 2017|title= Phylogenetic relationships of weaverbirds (Aves: Ploceidae): A first robust phylogeny based on mitochondrial and nuclear markers|journal= Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|volume= 109|pages= 21–32|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.013|pmid= 28012957|bibcode= 2017MolPE.109...21D|s2cid= 205841906}}

{{clade | style=font-size:100%;line-height:120%

|1={{clade

|label1=genus Quelea

|1={{clade

|1= Q. quelea

|2={{clade

|1=Q. cardinalis

|2=Q. erythrops

}}

|2=genus Foudia

}}

|2= Asian species of the genus Ploceus

}}

Impact on agriculture

Q. quelea is a major pest to small-grain cereal crops in much of sub-Saharan Africa; the kernels of corn are too big for it. Q. erythrops may cause substantial damage to rice. Q. cardinalis is not known to raid crops.{{cite journal|last= Oschadleus|first= H.D.|year= 2001|title= An updated bibliography of the African Quelea species|journal= South African Journal of Science|volume= 97|issue= 7/8|pages= 339–340|publisher= National Research Foundation Pretoria South Africa}} cited on {{cite web|website= Invasive Species Compendium|title= Abstract - An updated bibliography of the African Quelea species|url= http://www.cabi.org/isc/abstract/20013138156|access-date= 2017-05-04}}

References

Category:Ploceidae

Category:Bird genera

Category:Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach