After one of Peter Dearloves' regular ringing trips to the Dundee Sewage Works he noticed an interesting retrap of a Southern Red Bishop (Euplectes orix). This individual was initially ringed in the Dundee quarry (the other side of town) on December 20, 2000 by Dieter Oschadleus. Being retrapped on February 25, 2016 made this individual over 15 years old. This record easily exceeded our previous longevity record for this species (13 years 6 months 4 days (Ring: F65391)) and is now our new longevity record. This previous longevity record was held by an individual from the Darvill Sewage Works, Pietermaritzburg. In both cases the birds were retrapped so further extensions to their ages are possible.
If you feel you know of an older record please contact us at SAFRING with the details.
The great photo included with this article is accredited to Lea Steen and was linked from BirdPix.
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| Taxonomy | Maximum Longevity |
| Order: Passeriformes Family: Ploceidae Genus: Euplectes |
12.7 years (Roberts 7) 15.19 years (SAFRING) |
| Species | Ring Number |
| Euplectes orix | FA05661 |
| Common name | Sample size |
| Southern Red Bishop | Ringed: 120494 Retrapped: 5324 Recovered: 257 Total: 126075 |
