The Chestnut Weaver Ploceus rubiginosus is a seasonal nomad of arid regions – and a species that I have long wanted to observe and photograph at the nest. Finally, in the summer of 2017, my wish was granted in Namibia’s Erongo Conservancy.
There are two subspecies of Chest-nut Weaver in Africa: P. r. trothae is found in northern and central Namibia, north-western Botswana and southern Angola, while the nominate subspecies occurs in eastern Africa from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
In Namibia, this weaver breeds mostly in the open, semi-arid savanna of the Namibian escarpment and during the wet season between December and May, but with a peak from January to March. It needs an adequate mix of suitable grasses for nest building and a proliferation of insects to feed to the chicks, so breeding activity can be patchy and irruptive throughout its range. When summers are dry, the birds are mostly absent.
A polygynous species, the Chestnut Weaver usually breeds in huge colonies that may number as many as 200 nests in a single tree or are sometimes distributed over many adjacent trees, each with 40 to 100 nests. This is what we encountered – large numbers of males in full breeding dress, building their nests and chattering and ‘swizzling’ as they actively advertised them to the attendant females.
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