SuperParrot Blog August 2024
Hello everyone!
This month, I met a lot of birds! I met the Village Weavers at Paradise Park!
Village weavers are native to central Africa and live in a huge number of countries including the Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania and Zambia as well as others (Africa is a huge, diverse continent with lots of countries in it!).
The Ploceus cucullatus (Pl-oh-see-us cue-cull-ay-tus) is a lovely looking bird with a breeding male having a black face, red eyes and bright yellow feathers. Non-breeding males and females look a little more yellow-brown in their colouring and the chicks are less yellow. You can see this in the pictures below.
Weavers’ diet is varied and consists of seeds and fruits as well as nectar and insects.
When I was chatting to the weavers, they showed me their amazing nests which is why they have the name ‘weavers’! Male Village Weavers weave (this means join materials together into elaborate ball-shaped nests with a short funnel entrance, each one suspended from a tree branch). They make more than one nest and the females make the nest cosy with feathers and soft lining then lay their eggs inside the safe space and keep them warm till they hatch. It usually takes about 2 weeks for an egg to hatch and the female will lay around 2-3 eggs in a nest.
Village Weavers live in colonies and build their nests together so there are usually a lot of birds in one area which can get very noisy! In the wild, several animals can be a danger to them including monkeys, snakes and birds of prey. However, because there are so many of them in each colony (depending on the size, there can be hundreds of nests built!) and they live in so many countries, they are – fortunately – not considered to be a threatened species in the wild. Brilliant!
If you visit the Village Weavers at Paradise Park, you will find them in the Entrance Aviary just as you arrive! They are beautiful (and noisy!) birds. They have built their nests using the netting of the enclosure – under the roofed section to keep them dry! I was so impressed at their building skills – hope you are too!
Wach this video by Paul Dinning below.
Bye for now.
Super Parrot x
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