The weaver bird family

There are 117 living species in the weaver bird family (Ploceidae), excluding the sparrows of genus Passer, see species list here. The family is distributed through sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. It is a diverse group, illustrated by these extremes. The pest Red-billed Quelea Quelea quelea has a population of about 1500 million birds, and may be the most numerous land-bird in the world. Contrast this with the rarest weaver, the threatened Mauritius Fody Foudia rubra, with 210-250 birds. The smallest weaver is the Zanzibar Red Bishop Euplectes nigroventris (wing of female 52-59 mm) while the largest is the Long-tailed Widow Euplectes progne (wing of male 124-158 mm). Many species are brightly coloured while the females and non-breeding males in other species are nondescript and difficult to identify. There are 15 genera of weavers, which could be divided into 3 groups of nest types as shown here.

Monitoring weavers

Monitoring weavers can be done by monitoring their breeding and their survival rates. Anyone can help with finding breeding nests and submitting photos to project PHOWN (Photos of Weaver Nests). Studying survival rates requires ringing weavers regularly in project SESAW (Survival Estimates in Southern African Weavers), and can only be undertaken by registered ringers at SAFRING. Ringing weavers also provides information on their longevity and movements. Range changes are monitored by the ADUs atlas project SABAP2.

PHOWN:
Accepted: 1882
(Uploaded: 1883)

Total nests counted: 28141

SESAW (Survival rates) records:
8676; 12 Jan 2012

Latest weaver reference: PAPER: Blood parasites of Nigerian birds

Todays weaver type: (see more here)
29 Jan 1906, Othyphantes batesi , Bates's Weaver

Latest weaver news

First PHOWN record from Swaziland

2012-01-27 (181)

The first PHOWN record from Swaziland was submitted this week, being a Village Weaver colony of 12 nests photographed in September last year(see here) by Arnia van Vuuren and S Swarts. The Village Weaver is widespread through Swaziland being most common in the middleveld and lowveld of the country; its population in this country was estimated as 20000 birds (Parker V. 1994. Swaziland bird atlas 1985-1991.). 21 weaver species have been recorded in Swaziland.

See all Arnia's PHOWN records here: click on each thumb-nail to see the full record details. Arnia is one of the most active PHOWN contributors, and was the first to submit records from Ethiopia (see here) and Ghana (see here).

Story of a Spectacled Weaver nest

2012-01-23 (180)

Beryl Fraser, of Crocodile Nest B&B, submitted a great sequence of photos of a Spectacled Weaver pair that raised two broods in the same nest. This is unusual as Spectacled Weavers will usually build a new nest when one brood has been raised.

See all Beryl's PHOWN records here: click on each thumb-nail to see the full record details (right click and open each thumb-nail in a new tab or page, starting with record 1845; or see the thumb-nails at the bottom of each record page and click on the successive record numbers). Beryl did not know about PHOWN initially, but had photos that she could use to submit earlier records.

Thick-billed Weaver movement

2012-01-20 (179)

On 13 January 2012 Rory McDougall found a dead bird on the Great North Road in Zambia at 9h30. The road kill was an adult male Thick-billed Weaver with ring 4A46849. Rory forwarded the details to Zambian birders and Pete Leonard sent it to SAFRING. Rory wrote: "I was unaware these birds moved so far and wonder where it was ringed? I have found them breeding on Colin Streets farm on a dam on the Kaleya River approx 30kms as the crow flies from where this bird was killed, but I have never known anyone ring this species in the area? I am sure it will be an interesting recovery."

This bird was ringed as an immature on 7 July 2008 by Lizanne Roxburgh on Huntley Farm, 111km from the ring recovery site. As Rory pointed out, this is an interesting recovery, being the second longest movement known for the species. The longest was by an immature with ring 64308136 - it had moved 130 km along the Eastern Cape Coast in South Africa.

Related news items:
To read about the oldest Thick-billed Weaver, see here
To read about range expansion in the Thick-billed Weaver, see here

Lesser Masked Weaver range in KwaZulu-Natal

2012-01-18 (178)

Mark Brown ringed a female Lesser Masked Weaver (with a brood patch) between Escourt and Weenen Nature Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, on 22 December 2011 (see arrow on map). This is a new pentad record. During SABAP1 this species was recorded in the 2845_3000 Quarter Degree Square (region east of Weenen). The SABAP2 atlas map shows five new pentads surrounding this QDS, and Mark's ringing record further extends the range of the species westwards in this area. In Zululand there are also new pentads westwards for this species.

To see Lesser Masked Weaver colonies in PHOWN (Photos of Weaver Nests) see here. In addition to atlas records, we need to document weaver colonies in PHOWN to show how species' breeding ranges are changing, to give us additional insights into range expansions.

Photo: Mark Brown

Weaver demography on the Cape Peninsula

2012-01-16 (177)

Various aspects of weaver demography are being studied on the Cape Peninsula. The key factors are survival (and movements), which is being studied by ringing, and breeding which is being studied by monitoring colonies and ringing chicks. In the course of ringing weavers, other birds are caught too, like this juvenile Pied Crow (photo: Gabriel Jamie). To obtain data on survival and movements a large number of recaptures is needed, with ringing at a network of nearby sites. A full species list with numbers ringed and recaptured on the Cape Peninsula during 2011 may be seen here.

To see weaver colonies in PHOWN, (Photos of Weaver Nests) see here - choose one of the 4 species to see a map of records.

All news items
Send news items Dieter Oschadleus - see left