Weavers sometimes breed in association with colonial waterbirds. Some examples include weavers nesting with cormorants and Darters (PHOWN 356, 5543, 7024), or with herons and egrets (PHOWN 559, 1210, 3045, 6488). There are also many records of weavers nesting with Hadedas (PHOWN list of records), although the latter are not colonial.

A new project, "HeronryMAP: Africa", has been launched to monitor the status and distribution of waterbird breeding colonies in Africa. A Facebook group has been created, that you can join and share pictures and interesting information about any sites that you know of or come across during your travels. A Site Information form and a Census form (both Excel files) can be downloaded from the Facebook group (from the 'Files' tab) which you can complete and return. Future developments include an on-line and an interactive website.

When you find mixed colonies of weavers and waterbirds, please submit the record to both PHOWN and HeronryMAP, even if you use the same photos for each project.