Overall, these whydahs are considered least concerned based on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

The long-tailed paradise whydah was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Emberiza paradisaea.

[3] The long-tailed paradise whydahs are brood-parasitic birds along with the rest of the species in the family Viduidae.

The indigobirds are more closely related to the straw-tailed whydah based on their phylogenetic relationship where researchers analyzed mitochondrial restriction sites and nucleotide sequences.

[4] The long-tailed paradise whydah are known to be brood parasites where they would lay their eggs in nests of other songbirds.

[8][7] Additionally, these paradise whydahs are granivorous where they feed on small seed that ripen and fall on the ground.

[4] In 1581, a renaissance scholar named Michel de Montaigne visited Florence where he was able to see these paradise whydahs in the Medici aviaries.

For instance, in the highlands of Guinea and Sierra Leone, these paradise whydahs feed on small seeds of cultivated fonio which is known as “acha” or “hungry rice” before they can be harvested and that also happens to be the first food source available to the human inhabitants after the season of rains.

[4] Widespread throughout its large range, the long-tailed paradise whydah is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.