Black-necked weaver


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

Taxonomy and systematics

The species was first described by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1805, who named it Malimbus nigricollis. The description was based on a specimen that had been collected by Jean Perrein near Malimbe, French for the town Malembo, in the Cabinda Province of Angola. The species epithet nigricollis is a contraction of two Latin words, niger meaning "black", and collis, meaning "necked".

Subspecies

There are four subspecies recognized:
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.
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.

Distribution and habitat

This weaver occurs in forests, especially in wet habitats.

Behaviour and ecology

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.