Southern Masked Weaver, South Africa
By Charlie • September 8, 2008 • 11 commentsI’m off to one of my favourite birding destinations tomorrow - South Africa. I’m only there for a couple of days before coming home, but I’m planning to rent a car as usual and go and have a look at some truly superb sites like Suikerbosrand, Marievale, the Zaagkuildift Road etc etc. I’ll also take a lot of photos (the weather forecast looks excellent), but what I won’t be doing is then slipping photo-galleries into our 10,000 Clicks photos page without telling anyone. Principally because Mike gave me a bit of an online ear-bashing the other night which was along the lines of “Just because these are common birds to you, Charlie, doesn’t mean that everyone else has seen them: post them properly…”
He’s right of course. I posted a series of photos of an Ovenbird a few days ago and whilst some 10,000 Birds readers have Ovenbirds breeding in their garden at the same time it’s also a very rare vagrant in Europe (a point made by the inestimable Wren when she Stumbled the post - thanks indeed Wren). So, rather than bury some photographs of a common South African bird - the Southern Masked Weaver Ploceus velatus - I’ve just formatted, I thought I’d better post them through the homepage instead…
The Southern Masked Weaver is resident throughout southern Africa and across a wide band just below the Sahara. It’s found in a wide range of habitats, including shrubland, savanna, grassland, open woodland, inland wetlands and semi-desert areas. It also occurs in suburban gardens and parks - or as in the case of many of the photos below, in the grounds of hotels!
In fact this bird had built its nest right outside my hotel window, where it sang and displayed (and if you’ve ever heard a weaver ’sing’ you’ll know that the verb ’sing’ hardly describes the fizzes, squawks, and harsh swizzling notes these things make for hours on end). Much as I am frankly amazed and full of admiration that a bird with a brain the size of a walnut can create such a complex structure, I have to admit that photo opportunities aside I wish I’d been given another room because they are not only raucous but surprisingly loud. Still I don’t stay indoors very much when I’m SA and I know that a first-time visitor would have been entranced to see this yellow fireball shake its feathers and pour its heart into the air, so I shouldn’t complain really, should I…
Weavers like this typically nest in colonies, mainly from September to January, and males have several female partners. Remarkably they build a succession of nests, typically 25 each season, woven from reed strips, palm or grass - a massively time-consuming effort, but females are very picky about which nest they’ll lay in and Pavagrotti here needs to get it right!
Completed nest (with hotel terrace in the background), October. Gauteng, South Africa
Click on the photo to hear Southern Masked Weaver Ploceus velatus (mp3 file, 398kb) [Cape Turtle Dove from about nine seconds in]
October. Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa
Male Southern Masked Weaver and Southern Grey-headed Sparrow Passer diffusus,
January. Gauteng, South Africa
Female Southern Masked Weaver (right) with fully-grown juvenile,
January. Suikerbosrand, Gauteng, South Africa
Male Southern Masked Weaver and reedbed nest,
October. Marievale, Gauteng, South Africa
Photos copyright Charlie Moores 2008
There’s a short video of a Southern Masked Weaver building a nest on You Tube right here. Worth a quick look at all the related links too…
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Nice shots Charlie. In addition to southern africa, its possible to see colonies of these little beauties in areas of the Dominican republic which came as a bit of a surprise to me.
Hi Charlie
Excellent series of shots. I particularly like the one with open wings.
Excellent photos, Charlie, especially those first four. I also really like those showing the bird with its remarkable nest — they show me something characteristic about the bird other than its spectacular plumage.
Simply gorgeous Charlie!
Based on a few data points, I would guess that South Africans know that their Weaver’s eggs are blue just as confidently as most North Americans will report that Robin’s eggs are blue. Test this hypothesis, while you are there.
Thanks one and all - I guess Mike was right about posting these galleries on the homepage first then (he usually is, darn it).
Incidentally TH, I can find reference to the closely-related Village Weaver (P. cucullatus) being introduced into the West Indies (it’s known in the Dominican Republic as Madam Saga/Sara apparently) but not the Masked Weaver. They are quite similar-looking birds: is it possible this is what they were?
Charlie, these are some of the most amazing shots I’ve seen here, and yes, you should stop complaining!!
Maybe next time you can do an audio recording of their “squawks and swizzling notes”, so that less fortunate sods like me can also listen!!
Thanks for the lovely post. I’ve only come across empty baya weaver nests so far….maybe my luck will change.
Hi Ambika: thanks! Your wish is my command, and I promise I will try to get a recording of the noise these birds make. I’ve put new batteries in my recorder and I’ll post whatever I get
You’re absolutely right Charlie - it was village weaver; I have shots of both in my archive and mixed up which was where in my mind.
I’m a Peace Corps volunteer who just moved into my permanent home in Schoemansdal, South Africa. To my extreme pleasure I have an ‘apartment complex’ being built by these birds on my patio! It is quite unbelieveable and fascinating; so much so, that I had to do some research on this bird. I found your site and thank you for the incredible photos and information that I can now send on to my 90 year-old mother who is a bird enthusiast and has asked, “have you seen any interesting birds in South Africa?” I could spend all day watching these guys! Thanks again for your work!
Ruth: Many thanks for the kind comments. It’s genuinely my pleasure and privilege to be able to put posts like these together, and I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Ambika: Just for you my friend I’ve now recorded a Southern Masked Weaver and you can access it above…we aim to please here at 10,000 Birds you know!