The Black-billed Weaver is a very localised weaver found in montane forest in West and East Africa. The plumage is largely black with varying amounts of yellow (depending on subspecies and sex) on the head - in all plumages there is a thin black eye-stripe similar to that in the Spectacled and Black-necked Weavers. The Black-billed Weaver is a monogamous, solitary nester. The nest is built of tough dry grass stems, and ususally has no entrance tunnel.

Jason Anderson submitted the first PHOWN record of a Black-billed Weaver in Rwanda. The record is from December while previous breeding records in Rwanda were in November. The nest Jason photographed has a short entrance tunnel - there is only one case of a tunnel published previously.

Photo (J. Anderson): the first PHOWN record of a Black-billed Weaver, VM 2474.

First PHOWN records from Eritrea
Jason also submitted the first PHOWN records from Eritrea. These were of a small colony of Chestnut Weavers, VM 2476, and the nest of a Ruppell's Weaver VM 2484. Jason submitted lots of PHOWN records from Rwanda, covering a variety of waver species (see all Jason's records here.