Bulletin 325 - South Africa #2 - Part 1 - Weavers, Bishops and Widowbirds; Croc and Hippo

I had an amazing 2 week trip to South Africa and scored almost 280 new species of birds as well as fantastic mammals and a few reptiles. My guide Casper Badenhorst was outstanding. You can see his web site here. He can be contacted through the web site or if you want his email it is info@birdingandwildlifesafaris.com. I recommend him highly as he showed me so many rare birds and animals. I will use him again when I go to Southern Africa.

As usual my birding luck was 100% and we saw almost every thing expected to be found and many that were not expected!

Weavers, widowbirds and bishops are part of a large family (113 species) of songbirds, all but 5 are in Africa and adjoining islands in the Indian Ocean. The bishops have been used as caged birds and some escapes are found in the USA. The weavers are most interesting, as the male is responsible for weaving a nest which is often quite intricate. Each species seems to have a different shape. He weaves the nest to attract a mate and often many nests are close together in the same tree. On one occasion, we saw many nests on the ground as the females did not like them and tore them down.

The 5" Lesser Masked Weaver (Ploceus intermedius) has just started to build his nest and it can be seen that he has actually tied knots on the branch to anchor his nest.

Lesser Masked Weaver - male

The 7" male Cape Weaver (Ploceus capensis) is yellow with a reddish face .

Cape Weaver - male

The 6" male Eastern Golden Weaver (Ploceus subaureus) is also known as the Yellow Weaver. Here is his intricate spherical nest anchored on 2 reeds.

Eastern Golden Weaver - male
AKA Yellow Weaver

The 6" male Dark-backed Weaver (Ploceus bicolor) is black above and a black head with bright yellow below.

Dark-backed Weaver - male

The 6" male Spectacled Weaver (Ploceus ocularius) is yellow with a black throat and black line through his eye.

Spectacled Weaver - male

The 6" male Village Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) has a black mask and black streaking on his back. This one is busy with nest building.

Village Weaver - male

The 6" male Southern Masked Weaver (Ploceus velatus) builds a nest with elongated entrance. This was the species where many nests had been thrown to the ground by disgruntled females.

Southern Masked Weaver - male

However the award for the most intricate nest goes to the 7" male Thick-billed Weaver (Amblyospiza albifrons). The male is dark brown with lighter head and white spots above his bill.

Thick-billed Weaver - male

And here is one with his head sticking out the entrance hole of the nest he built. It is a work of art!

Thick-billed Weaver - male

The 9" male Red-billed Buffalo Weaver (Bubalornis niger) is all black with a bright red bill. These birds build a big stick nest containing up to a dozen apartments. They reminded of the bulky nests of the Monk Parakeets on power poles, we see here in USA.

Red-billed Buffalo Weaver - male

Continue to part 2