Introduction

The Weyns's Weaver was collected by Auguste Francois Guillaume Weyns, a Belgian Lieutenant-Colonel and explorer.

Weyns visited Africa four times before retiring in 1900, the first trip being to the village of Banana, Congo in 1888. In 1890 Weyns was appointed to protect the construction of the railway which was to connect Matadi to Stanley Pool. From 1894 to 1897 he again worked to protect the Company Railway in Belgian Congo. Weyns had wide interests and during this time he took many photos (eg published in the French magazine Congo illustre), and collected many specimens (plants, mammals, birds and insects).

In 1898 the Congo Museum was established in Tervuren. Weyns left Antwerp on 11 June 1898 on board the Albertville steamer to attend the opening of the Congo Railroad. He travelled much of the state, as far as the Stanley Falls and visited the lower reaches of several major tributaries of the river. He returned to Belgium on 9 August 1899, contributing many zoological, botanical, anthropological, geological, paleontological specimens and photographs to the Tervuren Museum.

It is most likely on the 1898-1899 trip that Weyns collected the weaver that was later named after him. 11 of the 15 collected specimens of Weyns's Weaver are still at Tervuren Museum.

The first illustration of the Weyns's Weaver was of the adult male and female, published by Dubois (1905). The next illustrations were published 50 years later by Mackworth (1955).

Scientific citation

Meaning of names

First English name

Alternate names

Collector

Date collected

Locality collected

Type specimens

The female has plain olive-green upperparts and face, with a pale eye but no supercilium. The female is separated from very similar female Vieillot's Black Weaver by a blackish bill, green tail and yellow underwings.

Distribution. The Weyns's Weaver is found in eastern PRCongo, western and northern DRCongo, southern Uganda and NW Tanzania (see map below, based on Birds of Africa). There are no subspecies of the Weyns's Weaver.

Habitat. The Weyns's Weaver lives high up in tall forest trees in seasonally dry swamp forest, and also in lush lake shore vegetation. It is restless, with a fast flight. It is usually resident, but may wander erratically, and seems to be absent from the northern shores of Lake Victoria in June-Sept.

Food. The Weyns's Weaver feeds on fruit, including wild figs, and most likely is also insectivorous. It forages in pairs and in flocks, mainly in the forest canopy. Feeding flocks are about 20 individuals, and sometimes up to 200 or more. It roosts in flocks, sometimes with other weavers.

Breeding. There is very limited information on the breeding biology of the Weyns's Weaver. There is one record of breeding in a papyrus swamp in Mabamba Bay, Uganda, in February 2006. This resembles the breeding pattern of Clarke's Weaver, of breeding in reeds but otherwise living in forests.

One photo of the nest of a Weyns's Weaver, however, is in a tree in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda (see here), although the species needs to be confirmed.