[2] 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.

The yellow-crowned bishop was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[4] Gmelin based his account on the "Black-bellied grossbeak" that had been described and illustrated in 1776 by the English naturalist Peter Brown.

[6][7] The yellow-crowned bishop is now one of 18 species placed in the genus Euplectes that was introduced in 1829 by the English naturalist William Swainson.

Non-breeding males and females can be confused with those of the southern red bishop, but have white rather than the buff-coloured underparts of the latter.

[11] 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.

[1][12] Escaped males have been noted in southern California, where they defended territories, although it is unknown if they still are present in the area.

Yellow-crowned bishop are gregarious and nomadic, wandering to breeding areas in response to rainfall.