Weaver news
Weaver Wednesday 4: Weaver themes (Series)
Genus Ploceus - 1. Asian weaversThere are 5 Asian weaver species and they are all in the genus Ploceus. The Baya Weaver is the most widespread and common species. Two Asian weaver species have IUCN threat status as shown below. The Asian weavers are found in savanna, grassland and swampy areas - there are no Asian forest weaver species. The Asian weavers feed on seeds, insects and sometimes nectar. All five species lay plain white eggs.Finn's Weaver (or Yellow Weaver) Ploceus megarhynchus - Vulnerable
Discovery of the Asian weaversThe 5 Asian weavers were described over 111 years, by 4 different authors, from 2 countries. To read more about the discovery of each of these species, click on the name.
The first time each species was illustrated in western literature is shown below (for the Streaked Weaver there was an earlier line drawing of its head, but the first illustration of an adult is given here):
PHOtos of Weaver Nests in Asia PHOWN (PHOtos of Weaver Nests) is a Virtual Museum, citizen science project of the Animal Demography Unit, to collect and monitor breeding distributions and colony sizes of weaver birds globally. As of 9 June 2016, there are 26 PHOWN records of Asian weavers, and 18 with colony size information. The statistics of colony sizes from PHOWN are as follows:
Many more records are needed to obtain better data on current breeding ranges, nest sites, and colony sizes of the Asian weavers. Please consider taking part in PHOWN - To take part, register and upload records at Virtual Museum (read the "How to" pdf for help). |
