The Chestnut Weaver breeds erratically in Namibia, mostly between December and May. A colony was found 2 weeks ago by Gudrun Middendorff - the colony was some 25 km north of Windhoek, and males and females were seen. On 5 February Gudrun, Neil Thomson and I put nets up to catch the breeding birds. A total of 37 females, all with distinct brood patches, were caught and ringed. No males were present in line with males deserting colonies soon after egg laying or hatching of the chicks. Several low nests were reached by ladder and 4 active nests contained 3 small chicks each. A fifth breeding nest contained 2 white Red-headed Finch eggs. Other low nests were unlined. This colony was submitted to PHOWN (Photos of Weaver Nests) - see here. Thanks to neil and Gudrun for hosting me!

There are 38 Nest Record Cards at the ADU for this species, and these have been converted into a format for PHOWN by Heidemarie Swanepoel. These records include the colony details and in place of photos there are images of the actual cards. The coordinates are approximate as they were not provided on the original cards. The cards, and normal Virtual Museum records, may be viewed here. Click on an image to see the details for that record, or scroll down to see a map for all the Chestnut Weaver breeding records.