Males during the breeding season are easily identified by their red and black plumage. Out of breeding season they lose their bright colours and are indistinguishable to female southern red bishops. Female and non-breeding male plumage is streaky brown with whitish underparts, which makes them easy to confuse with other species. In non-breeding plumage, this species can be confused with yellow bishops. An easy way to tell the difference is that the southern red bishop has finer streaking on underparts and does not have any yellow on shoulder or rump.

A common resident species that occurs throughout southern Africa and is particularly common in the Western Cape.

They can be found near any marshy grassland, wetlands, agricultural lands and suburbs. Reed beds and bulrushes are their main nesting grounds. Along the Breede they can be seen in large numbers in the reed beds which start at Powerline and are found further upriver. In the non-breeding season, they forage in flocks with other seed eating birds such as weavers, canaries and sparrows. They usually roost in reedbeds.

Red bishops are colonial nesters, meaning that they breed in close proximity to each other. The nests are an up-right oval shape, with the opening at the top under a “porch”. Males build between 3 to 13 nests in breeding season, each nest can take them 1 to 3 days to complete and are constructed from reed leaf or grass blades. They are polygynous, with males attracting between three to eight females in breeding season. Once a female selects a nest, she will start lining the interior with downy materials. The egg laying season is August to November in the Western Cape. They will lay 1 to 5 five eggs that are a pale blue to turquoise colour. Eggs are incubated for about 13 days by only the female. The fully-fledged chicks leave the nest about 15 days later. Nests are abandoned after the chicks have fledged and are frequently occupied by other bird species and climbing mice. Southern red bishops are hosts to the Diederik cuckoo/Diederikkie which is a brood parasite. This cuckoo lays its eggs in the nest of the southern red bishop which then raises the cuckoo’s chicks as its own.

This species mainly feeds on seeds but also eat insects such as beetles, flies, caterpillars and dragonflies.

They can live for at least 12.7 years.