Bird Weavers

One morning as I was looking out our bedroom window I noticed spherical balls hanging from the branches on the trees across the road. It looked as if someone had placed Christmas ornaments on the limbs. We walked over to see what they were and found dozens and dozens of quite lovely little bird nests.

They were the work of the masked bird weavers who are closely related to sparrows. They are roughly the same size but the males are much more colorful and have a bright yellow breast. They build intricate and elaborate nests--a roughly oval ball of dried grass, reeds, and twigs. The males build the nests and it was fascinating to watch them at work. First the nest site was chosen, usually at the end of a thin hanging branch, which was immediately stripped of leaves to protect against snakes. The weaver then flies back and forth to the site, carrying the building materials blade by blade in its heavy beak, first using a few thick strands to hang a skeletal nest from the end of a branch, then gradually completing the structure by interweaving numerous thinner blades of grass into the main frame.