Weaver news

History of a Red-headed Weaver pair

2013-06-02 (371)


At Sasakwa Hill, Grumeti Reserves, Serengeti, Tanzania is a pair of Red-headed Weavers that has been observed frequently since October 2012 by Ann Harris. In December there were 3 chicks being fed by the parents, mostly by the male. In January another clutch was laid, but unfortunately these were raided by Vervet Monkeys. The next day the pair started building a new nest and laid eggs again in February, only to raided by the monkeys again. In May, presumably the same pair built a nest in a different but nearby tree. A second nest was built by the male while the female started incubating. Chicks could be heard in the nest yesterday.

The Red-headed Weaver has had no full-length breeding papers published, so even regular observations may add to the knowledge of the species. This applies to most weaver species - only a handful have had detailed breeding studies published. In the case of Ann's observations, she shows that both male and female may build, but the male may build alone when the female starts incubating. Re-laying has not been published for this species, and there are few records of nest predation, thus Ann's observations are valuable.

To see more detail on this pair, see here. At the bottom of this web, is a table showing a summary of all the PHOWN records for this pair/nest site. Click on any record number in the table to see the photos for that record (the same summary table appears for all the individual PHOWN records). To see larger photos, click on the "Large photos" under the photo thumbnails at the top of the PHOWN record.

If you have a weaver colony or nest near you, start regular observations and submit PHOWN records to PHOWN (PHOtos of Weaver Nests) via the Virtual Museum upload site.