Introduction

The Principe Golden Weaver was collected by Carl Weiss, a German doctor and collector working for the Museum of Hamburg. Weiss arrived on Sao Tome in 1847, where he collected the type of the Sao Tome Weaver. He travelled from Sao Tome to the coast of Ghana, to Principe and back to Sao Tome again. He would have collected the Principe Golden Weaver between 1847-1850. The specimen was probably sent to Hamburg Museum first, but was presumably sold to the Paris Museum.

The first illustration of a Principe Golden Weaver is by Shelley (1905), several decades after it was first discovered. The next illustration was of a male and female, but not in colour, published by Bannerman (1949). Reichenbach (1863) mentioned the species, and provided an English name, but did not illustrate it.

Scientific citation

Meaning of names

However, it is more likely that the weaver was named after the island, rather than the general Latin name. Principe Island (Prince's island) was named in honor of Afonso, Prince of Portugal, by the early Portuguese visitors (see wikipedia).

First English name

Alternate names

Collector

Date collected

Locality collected

Type specimens

Identification. The Principe Golden Weaver is a large yellow, heavy-billed weaver. The male has an orange-chestnut head and a conspicuous yellow eye. The female is yellowish with an olive head, horn bill and also has a yellow eye. Juveniles have brown eyes. There are no other yellow weaver species on Principe.

Distribution. The Principe Golden Weaver is is restricted to the island of Principe in the Gulf of Guinea, and it is one of the commonest birds on the Island. It is found throughout the island (see light green on map below) and is often the first endemic bird seen by visitors to the island.

Having a restricted global range, no subspecies are recognised.

Habitat. The Principe Golden Weaver is abundant in all habitats and has adapted to degraded habitats; it occurs in well-timbered areas, including natural forest, secondary forest, plantations, villages and gardens, and open grassland areas.

Food. The Principe Golden Weaver may be mainly insectivorous, but has a varied diet which includes beetles, seeds, berries, the fruit of bananas, chillis and oil palms, and nectar from Erythrina trees. It probes bark and flowers, gleans insects from branches, and also hawks flying insects. The Principe Golden Weaver often forages in groups of up to 30 individuals, and may join mixed-species flocks.

Breeding. The Principe Golden Weaver is monogamous and usually is a solitary breeder. Sometimes it is colonial, with several pairs nesting in the same tree, but with the nests well spaced. The male displays and sings while hanging below his nest, beating his wings vigorously.

The nest is globular or oval, and the entrance below has no tunnel. The nest is woven by the male from strips torn from leaves of palms or banana trees. Sometimes living leaves are included into the nest structure. The nest is lined with fine grass and fluffy grass-heads. It is suspended usually more than 10 m above the ground from the tip of a branch or palm frond.

One or two plain blue eggs are laid by the female. The male aids in feeding large nestlings.

Nests are sometimes robbed by the Blue-breasted Kingfisher Halcyon malimbica and by the Principe Glossy Starling Lamprotornis ornatus.