Weaver news

First PHOWN record for Red-vented Malimbe

2013-04-19 (355)


Red-vented Malimbe, nest

The Red-vented Malimbe Malimbus scutatus is a species of mature and secondary forest in West Africa from Sierra Leone to Cameroon.

The nest is a neatly woven 'inverted sock' with a globular egg chamber and long entrance tube. The entrance tube is semi-transparent and beautifully woven - it looks delicate but is remarkably robust. The tube length may be up to 64 cm long, but is usually shorter. An adult arriving in flight dives upward into the entrance with closed wings, and grasps it inside with its feet and then clambers up to the chamber. The nest is built by both sexes, and is typically suspended from the centres of 2 adjacent palm leaflets, or the tips of the leaflets. Nests are often placed in palm trees.

The first PHOWN record for this species was submitted by John Davies, of a nest seen near Ankassa National Park, Ghana. He also submitted several other PHOWN records from Ghana. Two of these were also firsts, for Yellow-mantled Weaver (PHOWN 5336) and Red-headed Malimbe (PHOWN 5337). These records show photos of adults as John did not know about PHOWN at the time, but John saw nests near the adults and provides details of these. See Johm's PHOWN records here.