Introduction

The Bar-winged Weaver was collected by Jose Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta, a Portuguese explorer and naturalist, who collected a large number of birds in Angola. In 1867 the Portuguese government hired Anchieta as a naturalist but probably also as a secret agent and informer in the Caconda region of Angola. Anchieta lived in Caconda, explored the area and sent many specimens and letters to his scientific correspondents in Lisbon. Anchieta discovered the Bar-winged Weaver near Caconda, and sent a specimen to the Lisbon Museum.

The first illustration of the Bar-winged Weaver was published in Shelley (1887). The second illustration was published decades later, by Mclachlan & Liversidge (1957).

Scientific citation

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Type specimens

The Bar-winged Weaver is one of several 'nuthatch' (bark-gleaning) weavers, but the Bar-winged Weaver does not overlap in range with any of these.

Distribution. The Bar-winged Weaver occurs in miombo woodland from Angola to Zambia (see map below, based on Birds of Africa). No subspecies are recognised. It is not globally threatened, but is poorly known and uncommon within its relatively limited range.

Habitat. The Bar-winged Weaver inhabits mature, tall Brachystegia woodland where it is moist enough to grow copious Usnea lichen on the trees. It also enters Cryptosepalum forest.

Food. The Bar-winged Weaver is insectivorous, feeding on mantids, chironomid larvae, beetle larva, beetles and other insects. It forages by creeping along trunks, thin and thick branches covered with lichens and Usnea, continuously inspecting the wood for food. It forages in pairs and family parties, and often joins mixed-species flocks of insectivores.

Breeding. The Bar-winged Weaver is a solitary, monogamous breeder. The nest is a roughly spherical ball with an entrance tube of length 30-210 mm hanging down from one side. The nest is constructed of Usnea, fine grass stems and a few narrow leaf midribs. It is suspended below a lichen-covered branch or from several slender twigs, around which the roof of the nest is woven. The nest is sited about 10m above the ground. It is built by both sexes, one bird bringing material, the other inside the nest to weave and shape it.

Two eggs are laid and they are turquoise-blue, obscurely flecked and clouded with a darker shade, mostly at the broad end.