van Stuyvenberg D, van Stuyvenberg K, van Stuyvenberg S. 2012. Largest-ever Red-headed Weaver Anaplectes rubriceps colony revisited. Afring News 41:4-7

Red-headed Weavers normally nest solitarily, sometimes in small groups. The largest colony recorded, however, held 210 nests (see news item). Dirk van Stuyvenberg and I had spent a morning ringing at this colony in Febraury 2010. Dirk and his family returned in January 2012 to monitor the colony and obtain recaptures. They found a slight decrease in Red-headed Weaver nests but many Lesser Masked Weaver nests in a mixed colony around the Mayholme farm house.

Interesting was how close the Lesser Masked Weavers built individual nests to Red-headed Weaver nests. In this photo (right) the upper nest is an active Red-headed Weaver nest and the lower nest belongs to a Lesser Masked Weaver (photo: D van Stuyvenberg).

The paper, which includes links to the PHOWN records, can be downloaded as a pdf here.