Weaver news

WEB: Range changes in African birds

2010-04-16 (56)


Africa Climate Exchange (ACE)
Species list - maps Scroll down to Ploceidae for a list of weaver maps

This website shows current distribution maps of African birds and how these distributions may change due to climate by 2025, 2055 and 2085. Many current maps have dots where the species does not occur (eg White-winged Widow does not occur in Cape Town). Many weavers are predicted to arrive along the east coast of South Africa in the future, although there is a wide gap between the rest of the bird's future range - this modelling does not seem believable. Some examples of this are Ploceus baglafecht, Ploceus angolensis, Ploceus nigricollis, Ploceus rubiginosus, Ploceus superciliosus, Malimbus malimbicus, Euplectes diadematus and Ploceus taeniopterus. Interestingly Red-headed Weavers and Red-billed Buffalo Weavers are predicted to arrive in Cape Town even though these are savanna species. Species will certainly change their ranges in the future but any long term predictions are unlikely to be correct since range changes depend on more than future environments, but also ecological interactions (like diet).