Black-necked weaver
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Family
Genus
SPECIES
Ploceus nigricollis

The black-necked weaver (Ploceus nigricollis ) is a resident breeding bird species in much of tropical Africa from Senegal and northern Angola to South Sudan and Tanzania.

Appearance

The black-necked weaver is a stocky 16 cm bird with a strong conical bill. The adult male of the northern race has olive upper-parts and wings, and yellow underparts and head. It has a black eye-mask and bib, and a pale yellow iris. The non-breeding male has a yellow head with an olive crown, grey upper-parts and whitish. The wings remain yellow and black.

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The adult female also has olive upper-parts and wings, and yellow underparts and head. It has a black eyemask but no bib.

The southern race found from Nigeria eastwards has a quite different appearance, with almost black upper-parts and tail.

The black-necked weaver feeds on insects and vegetable matter. The calls of this bird include a wheezing dew-dew-twee.

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Habits and Lifestyle

It builds a large coarsely woven nest made of grass and creepers with a 15 cm downward facing entrance tunnel hanging from the globular egg chamber. The nest is suspended from a branch in a tree and 2-3 eggs are laid. It nests in pairs but forms small flocks when not breeding.

Lifestyle
Seasonal behavior
Bird's call

Diet and Nutrition

Population

References

1. Black-necked weaver Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_weaver
2. Black-necked weaver on The IUCN Red List site - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/103811662/119722313
3. Xeno-canto bird call - https://xeno-canto.org/612381

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