Introduction

The Black-chinned Weaver was collected by Jose Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta, a Portuguese explorer and naturalist.

Anchieta moved to Angola with his family, in 1865. He lived in the region of Benguela, establishing a laboratory inside the ruins of a church, and exploring and collecting animals. In 1867, the Portuguese government hired him as a naturalist, but probably also as a secret agent in the Caconda region of Angola. He lived there, researching, exploring and sending many specimens and letters to his scientific correspondents in Lisbon, mainly J.V. Barboza du Bocage.

Unfortunately most of the museum specimens have disappeared, as well as his many letters to Bocage, in a catastrophic fire in the Lisbon Museum in 1978. Anchieta collected 25 new species of mammals, 46 birds and 46 amphibians and ophidians. He did not write any scientific papers, but left this to his correspondents in Lisbon. Many of the species of birds, amphibians, lizards, snakes, fishes and mammals were named after Anchieta.

Anchieta collected two female specimens of the Black-chinned Weaver, but the collection dates are unknown.

The Black-chinned Weaver was first described in 1894 by Jose Vicente Barbosa du Bocage, a Portuguese zoologist and politician. He was curator of the Lisbon Museum. However, Bocage did not realise that he used an invalid name. Several years later, Reichenow realised this when he was working on his book on African birds. Reichenow provided a new name.

The Black-chinned Weaver was first illustrated by Mackworth (1963), many decades after it was first described. The next illustration to be published was a line drawing in Harrison (1965), comparing the basic plumage patterns of several weavers.

Scientific citation

Meaning of names

First English name

Alternate names

Collector

Date collected

Locality collected

Type specimens

Distribution. The Black-chinned Weaver is known from south-east Gabon, central Congo-Brazzaville, western Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Bailundu highlands of central Angola (see red areas on map right, based on Birds of Africa). It is localised but not uncommon outside of Angola. It is very scarce in Angola and only ten specimens of this species are known from this country, including two in the Lubango Bird Skin Collection (see photo above left, and news). No subspecies of the Black-chinned Weaver are recognised.

New sightings in recent years were reported from a new area - near Capaia in north-eastern Angola (dark blue circle on map). The global population has been estimated as at least 10000 pairs.

Habitat. The Black-chinned Weaver inhabits open savanna with bushes and trees up to 8 m tall, often near gallery forest. It occurs in pairs or small groups but keeps to the tops of low trees.

Food. Grass seeds and insects have been recorded as food items.

Breeding. Breeding information was unpublished until recently (see news). The Black-chinned Weaver nests in small colonies, with up to ten nests in a single tree in Gabon. The nests are very large for weavers, woven mostly from coarse grass, giving a slightly untidy appearance. A collected nest was lined with finer grass, and had a ceiling (a layer of grass placed against the roof inside the main structure). The nest entrance is located on the side but near the top of the nest.

The eggs and chicks, breeding season and other aspects of breeding biology of the Black-chinned Weaver are still unknown.