Latest weaver news

Google Maps streetview has recorded weaver colonies close to roads that they photographed. One example is of a Cape Weaver colony at Rondevlei, Cape Town. Find the colony here and zoom in at the marker until the streetview appears. You can view the colony from different angles. About 13 nests are visible, but unfortunately no date is available for this record. This particular colony has been monitored since 2006 and several times photos were taken. These photos may be viewed at the ADU Virtual Museum - click on "Projects" in the menu on the left, click on the project header "Photos of Weaver Nests", then enter 70 in the "Search" box at the top to see the first record of this colony - enter any number from 70 to 75 to see all the current records of this colony, spanning from 2006 to recently.
To take part in PHOWN read here.

Weaver colony sizes vary between species with solitary species having 1 or 2 nests and colonial species may have over 100 nests in one colony. Single-male colonies, like Southern Masked Weavers, typically have less than 10 nests but sometimes this may be larger especially if there are more males than the usual one. One result of PHOWN (Photos of weaver nests) project is having a nest count per colony. To see up-to-date minimum, average and maximum colony sizes for records submitted to PHOWN click here.

While birding, you can look out for weaver colonies and contribute photos with nest counts to the ADU Virtual Museum. As soon as your record is accepted, the average colony sizes will be automatically updated. To take part read here.

Abstract. Visual signals such as plumage characteristics in birds often play a key role in the establishment of dominance in contests by acting as a badge of status that can be used to assess individual fighting ability. We studied the role of plumage colouration in males of the red bishop (Euplectes orix), a sexually dimorphic and polygynous weaverbird species occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and breeding in dense colonies around water. Males are highly territorial and often engage in competition over limited resources such as breeding sites and potential mates. By experimentally staging male–male contests over a limited food source, we wanted to determine whether the orange–red breeding plumage in this species serves as a dominance signal between individuals, with males with redder plumage being dominant over those with duller plumage. In the first set of experiments, we staged contests between unfamiliar and unmanipulated males. The setup of the second set of experiments was identical to the first, with the exception that those males with the lowest chroma and hue values had their plumage experimentally reddened within the range of the natural variation. In addition to plumage colouration, we incorporated testosterone levels, body condition and age into the analysis of factors contributing to contest outcome. Our results show a consistent and strong age effect in both sets of experiments, which seems to be independent of plumage colouration, testosterone and body condition. This suggests that in the red bishop, the outcome of male–male competitions over limited resources is determined by age-related acquired experience rather than by status signalling through plumage colouration.

Reflectance spectra of two Southern Red Bishop males found in the wild (solid line shows upper extreme of plumage colouration in the field; dotted line shows an example of the lower end of plumage variation) in comparison to a manipulated male (dashed line) in the aviary. The manipulation was applied with a red Copic marker selected to correspond to the colour variation found in the field.

PHOWN (Photos of Weaver Nests) has started off well with 42 records submitted within the first week of the project. There are records for 20 weaver species. Most records are from South Africa, 3 from Namibia and 3 from Rwanda. The most northerly record is of a Vieillot's Black Weaver Ploceus nigerrimus, a colony of 6 nests in Rwanda, recorded by Claassen Marcell.

You can view submissions (without being registered) by going here. There are different search possibilities - explore these yourself!

To take part read here.

PHOWN (Photos of Weaver Nests; pronounced "phone") is a new ADU Virtual Museum project, where weaver nests or colonies may be photographed and submitted. To take part in this project, you need to register as an ADU participant. Then find weaver nests and take photos and count the nests. Read more details about how to take part by reading here. Any weaver species (Ploceidae family) may be photographed, including introduced populations that breed naturally in the wild.

You can also take part in the other ADU Virtual Museums, all designed by Rene Navarro.

You can view submissions (without being registered) by going here. There are different search possibilities - explore these yourself! There are already 23 records of a variety of southern African weavers. The first one submitted was by Les Underhill of Southern Masked Weavers breeding on a barbed wire fence.