In 1751 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the southern red bishop in the fourth volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a live bird kept at the home of George Shelvocke in Greenwich.

[2] When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the southern red bishop with the buntings in the genus Emberiza.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Emberiza orix and cited Edwards' work.

[3] The southern red bishop is now one of 17 species placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced in 1829 by the English naturalist William Swainson.

Breeding males are brightly coloured with red (occasionally orange) and black plumage.

In the breeding season it is found near water among grass, reeds, sedges or crops such as sugar cane.