Introduction

Smith lived in South Africa from 1821 to 1837, mainly in Grahamstown and Algoa Bay (i.e. Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape, and in Cape Town in the Western Cape (Kirby 1965). Smith's type-localities are often imprecise because he was more interested in describing ranges than providing formal type-localities. Smith collected ten specimens of the Eastern Golden Weaver 'in the neighbourhood of Algoa Bay'.

Smith formally described the Eastern Golden Weaver in 1839, but he refers to an earlier description by him, i.e. 'Ploceus subaureus Smith. Proceedings of South African Institution, April, 1832'. This reference has not been traced (Oschadleus 2007) but shows that he had collected at least one specimen of this species by 1832.

The first illustration of a Eastern Golden Weaver is a colour painting by George Henry Ford who painted for Smith. The next illustration is by Reichenbach (1863).

Scientific citation

Meaning of names

First English name

Alternate names

Collector

Date collected

Locality collected

Type specimens

Identification. The Eastern Golden Weaver is a yellow weaver. The male in breeding plumage has a black bill and red eye (above left). The female is duller yellow, has a horn to dark bill, and eye is brown or reddish brown (above middle). Read more about the variation in eye colour of this species and some other weavers in a pdf here (821 kB).

The Eastern Golden Weaver is also known as the African Golden Weaver or Yellow Weaver. The name has been confused with Holub's Golden Weaver P. xanthops but the scientific names prevent confusion.

Distribution. The Eastern Golden Weaver is common from Kenya to the Eastern Cape and as far inland as Malawi (see map left), based on Birds of Africa).

Two subspecies are currently recognised:
P. s. subaureus in central and south Mozambique south of Save River and south along the coast to extreme eastern Swaziland and south to the Eastern Cape (see red on map left).
P. s. aureoflavus is found in SE Kenya (south of the Tana River), coastal Tanzania (including Pemba and Zanzibar), eastern Malawi, and northern Mozambique (see blue on map left). The male in breeding plumage for this race has an orange wash on the forehead, crown, sides of head, chin and throat (above right), and is smaller than the nominate subspecies.

This species appears to be expanding its range westwards in Swaziland and the Kruger National Park, Mpumulanga, South Africa (see SABAP2 map here. This includes PHOWN records, eg. 1701, near Kruger.

Habitat. The Eastern Golden Weaver inhabits coastal plains, river floodplains and lowland river valleys.

Food. The Eastern Golden Weaver feeds on seeds, including rice and millet, and also nectar and insects, especially termite alates. The young are fed mainly on insects. It forms large foraging flocks when not breeding.

Breeding. The Eastern Golden Weaver is colonial, with small territories, and is probably polygynous. The tightly-woven nest is oval to spherical, with the entrance below. The nest material consists of grass or reed strips.

The nest is lined with soft Eragrostris inflorescences, and rarely with a few feathers. The nest is attached to a single reed stem at the side, or supported by a reed on either side, sited 1-2 m above water, or is situated in trees at a much higher level. The reeds or branches above nests are often stripped of leaves. It may nest alongside other weaver species.

Nests were raided by African Fish Eagles Haliaeetus vocifer in Malawi. The Eastern Golden Weaver is an occasional host of the Diederik Cuckoo Chrysococcyx caprius.

Amazingly, one breeding colony in a wetland attracted a few different frog species as resting inside the weaver nests during the day (see news).

Of 13 birds recovered, 1 had moved 78 km, the others being within 10km of the ringing site. The oldest Eastern Golden Weaver to date was a female recaptured after 8 years 5 months (read more here).

Range changes in SA

The points below match the points on the map above.

Areas with very large increases include:
1. The lowveld of Swaziland, with a recent range expansion north into Mpumalanga.
2. The KwaZulu-Natal midlands.

Areas with mixed changes:
3. KwaZulu-Natal coast - most grids show small changes (either increases or decreases), but some grids show large changes.

Areas with very large decreases:
4. Eastern Cape, on the interior edge of its range.

Range changes elsewhere