Tanzania - 2020 - Part 11 - Featuring Southern Masked Weaver

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Southern Masked Weaver (Ploceus velatus)

Weaver birds are small African and Asian finchlike birds noted for their elaborately woven nests. They are a diverse group of several families of small insectivores. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, there are 57 species of the genus Ploceus in the most common family Ploceidae.

The Southern Masked Weaver, the most widespread African weaver, has a short conical bill and pinkish brown legs. In breeding plumage, the male has a black face, throat and beak, red eye, bright yellow head and underparts, and a plain yellowish-green back.

The branches surrounding the nests shown in these images limited the open space available to track the weavers as they brought material to add to the nest as well as reducing the light levels in the area around the nest. But we noticed that the birds would momentarily perch in certain places after collecting nesting material before initiating a flight to add it to the nest. Greg notified us when that flight began and I would focus on the nest and initiate a burst of exposures when the bird entered the open area. Sometimes, as in this shot, the bird would not be in the same plane as the nest and the bird would not be in sharp focus.

An Olympus OM-D E-M1X camera with a 300mm f/4 IS Pro Lens + 1.4x teleconverter attached was used to acquire the images in this blog entry. The shutter speed ranged from 1/1600 sec to 1/6400 sec, the aperture from f/5.6 to f/7.1, and the ISO from 640 to 4000.

But at other times the bird in flight was closer to the nest and, therefore, was in sharper focus.

After the bird landed on the nest with the substance to be added, focus was more reliable, but the bird was usually in shadow.

Weavers can tie real knots in nest material with its beak and its feet. Garden Design magazine has a nice description of the construction of a nest. LINK

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.