Streaked Weaver Ploceus manyar Scientific name definitions

15 cm; 16–22 g. Male nominate race breeding has forehead and crown golden-yellow, sharply demarcated from blackish-brown lores, cheek, ear-coverts, chin and throat; nape to back feathers brown with rusty-coloured edges, rump feathers rust-brown with narrow central streaks; tail and upperwing dark brown, remiges with yellow margins, wing-coverts with pale edges; breast and belly creamy white in centre, sides and flanks rust-coloured, dark brown streaking throughout; thighs buffy with dark streaking, undertail-coverts creamy white; iris dark brown; bill black; legs pinkish-flesh. Male non-breeding loses most of yellow on crown, has supercilium yellow, cheek brown, chin and throat yellowish but streaked; bill pinkish-horn. Female breeding similar to non-breeding male but less boldly patterned: crown and nape dull brown with dusky streaks; supercilium and patch on side of neck yellow, lores and ear-coverts greyish lightly streaked with dusky brown, short darker dusky brown moustachial stripe enhanced by pale yellowish crescent beneath eye and by similarly coloured submoustachial area; chin and throat pale yellowish buff, sometimes separated from submoustachial area by dusky-brown stripe; bill horn-colour to fleshy-orange; legs pinkish-flesh. Female non-breeding has forehead and crown dark brown, prominent yellow supercilium, yellow fleck below grey-brown ear-coverts; chin and throat creamy white. Juvenile resembles non-breeding female, but with buffy wash over plumage, less heavily streaked, yellow-brown bill. Races differ mainly in details of male breeding plumage: flaviceps has face mask and streaking black, rather than brown, crown paler yellow, ground colour of breast and flanks paler; <em>peguensis</em> has very heavy black streaking, breast and flanks intermediate in colour between nominate and previous; <em>williamsoni</em> also is intermediate in coloration, with side of head and streaking brown, rather than black.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Diet primarily seeds, including those of the grasses Echinochloa colonum (preferred by captives in feeding trials) and Phalaris minor, rice (Oryza), wheat (Triticum), millet and sorghum. Young fed chiefly with animal food, mainly insects, with grasshoppers (Orthoptera) major item, also caterpillars (Lepidoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), spiders (Araneae), and small snails (Gastropoda). Forages in flocks, often with other ploceids; forms daytime roosts near feeding grounds in hottest months; in non-breeding season, communal roosts in reedbeds and sugar cane (Saccharum); in Punjab, roosts shared with P. philippinus and P. benghalensis along with waxbills (Estrildidae), starlings (Sturnidae) and other species.

Song a soft, continuous trill of high-pitched whistles , ending in wheezy note. Different song, rendered "tililileekitee, tililileekitee", when female approaches nest; one singing male may set off chorus through whole colony. Displaying males often call "tre tre cherrer cherrer" in unison; flight call of flock-members a loud "chirt-chirt".

Breeds Jun–Sept in Pakistan and India (in S India, nesting dependent on rainfall and suitable growth of bulrushes), Feb–Apr and Jul–Oct in Sri Lanka, Jun–Oct in Myanmar and Mar–May in Java; introduced population breeds in May in Egypt, and nest-building recorded Apr–May (but no eggs laid) in Saudi Arabia. Apparently monogamous, with occasional polygyny. Colonial, 15–50 nests at site in Java; often in mixed colonies with P. benghalensis in India, and found also nesting alongside Tricoloured Mannikin (Lonchura malacca). Flight displays over territory accompanied by song. Nest retort-shaped, woven on to leaves of supporting plants, sometimes with entrance tunnel as long as 30 cm (may be absent), entrance facing downwards, woven by male from strips of reed or palm leaves, female assists later and adds lining of fine grass stems (some nests with eggs apparently unlined), nest placed up to 2 m above water surface in reeds and bulrushes, or in elephant grass, sometimes in palm (favoured site in Java), or on mangrove close to human habitation, and in some areas suspended from vegetation growing out of sides of irrigation wells; small lumps of mud or clay applied to sides of entrance of many nests, perhaps to anchor loose ends of material, and yellow flowers (e.g. of Acacia arabica) sometimes affixed to mud blobs or wet buffalo dung, or placed elsewhere on nest; nesting near wasps (Hymenoptera) reported from India; deserted nests used for breeding by Indian Silverbill (Euodice malabarica), also occupied by long-tailed tree mouse (Vandeleuria oleracea). Clutch 2–3 eggs, white, average size of 50 eggs 20·3 x 14·3 mm; incubation shared by male initially, then done by female alone, period 14–17 days; chicks fed by both sexes, male contributing once nestlings c. 10 days old, nestling period c. 17–18 days. Of 70 eggs in colony in N India (Kumaon Terai), 73% hatched and 64% produced fledglings; snakes and crows (Corvidae) significant nest predators, and changeable lizard (Calotes versicolor) recorded as preying on eggs; in reedbeds, many nests destroyed by grazing cattle and by people harvesting reeds.