Ploceus taeniopterus
The Northern Masked Weaver (*Ploceus taeniopterus*) is a vibrant and social passerine bird, renowned for its intricate nest-building skills. Adult males in breeding plumage are striking, featuring a brilliant yellow body, a distinctive black mask covering the forehead, lores, and throat, and an olive-green back and wings, often accented by a yellow nuchal collar. They typically measure around 13-14 cm in length. Females and non-breeding males exhibit a much duller, streaky yellowish-green plu...
Found primarily in a variety of open, often moist habitats including savannas, grasslands, swamps, and cultivated areas, always in close proximity to water sources like rivers, lakes, and marshes. They generally inhabit low to moderate elevations.
Primarily granivorous, feeding on grass seeds, cereal grains, and other plant material. During the breeding season, their diet shifts to include a significant proportion of insects, essential for feeding their rapidly growing chicks.
Northern Masked Weavers are highly social birds, typically breeding in noisy, bustling colonies that can number dozens of pairs. The males are polygynous and industrious nest-builders, constructing multiple elaborate, spherical or retort-shaped nests from woven strips of grass, reeds, and palm fr...
The Northern Masked Weaver is widely distributed across East Africa, with its core range extending from central and eastern Sudan, South Sudan, and Ethiopia south through Uganda, Kenya, and into northwestern Tanzania. Isolated populations are also found in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo...
Least Concern
- Males are renowned architects, capable of weaving several intricate, purse-shaped nests to attract multiple mates within a single breeding season. - The black 'mask' that gives the species its name is a key identifying feature of the breeding male, setting it apart from duller females and non-b...