Southern Brown-throated Weaver Ploceus xanthopterus Scientific name definitions

15 cm; male 22–31 g, female 16–24 g. Male nominate race breeding has forehead, crown, cheek and ear-coverts golden-yellow becoming greenish-yellow on mantle and back, rump bright yellow, tail greenish with broad yellow inner webs on outer rectrices; upperwing olive-brown, remiges with narrow yellow outer margins and broad yellow inner webs (on males over 3 years old, brown restricted to tip and a band along feather rachis), wing-coverts with broad yellow margins; blackish-grey lores, cheek to chin and throat chestnut, this colour extending onto breast to variable extent; remainder of breast and underparts golden-yellow; iris deep brownish-red, orbital ring blackish-grey; bill black; legs pinkish. Male non-breeding has forehead, crown and nape olive-green with paler feather margins, mantle and back pale brown with blackish central streaks on feathers, rump buffy brown, tail olive-green with yellow outer margins and inner webs; wings as in breeding male, but narrower margins on wing-coverts; lores, cheek and ear-coverts olive-green, chin, throat and beast buffy, belly, flanks, thighs and undertail-coverts dull white, some buffish wash on flanks; bill brown, darker on upper mandible, legs brown to pinkish. Female breeding resembles non-breeding male, but yellow on inner webs of remiges restricted to base of feathers, has distinct yellow wash on throat and breast extending onto belly in mid-line; iris brown, upper mandible dark brown, lower mandible pale brown. Female non-breeding lacks yellow wash below. Juvenile resembles female, but with broad buffy margins on wing-coverts, dull white throat and underparts; legs grey in first year, thereafter brownish or pinkish; yellow on remiges and tail pale until first moult. Race castaneigula is larger than nominate, male breeding has orange-yellow crown, contrasting with green mantle; marleyi has bright yellow crown, throat patch tawny (rather than chestnut-brown).

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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.

Reedbeds and tall aquatic vegetation such as papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) in wetlands; riparian vegetation and forests in non-breeding season. To 1000 m.

Resident; in Malawi, no ringed individuals known to have moved farther than 8 km from ringing site.

Diet includes seeds of grasses such as Panicum maximum, berries, flowers and nectar from Combretum mozambicensis, Combretum microphyllum, Fernandoa magnificens; also insects, including moths and caterpillars (Lepidoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), grasshoppers (Orthoptera). Also takes bread at birdfeeders. Forages in forest canopy for insects in non-breeding season; usually forages in vegetation, including branches and trunks of trees.

Song a jumbled sequence of nasal, buzzing, trilling and hissing notes, "zeep seep zzz swizzzrrr zeep swee". Calls include hissing notes, sharp "jick".

Breeds Mar in Tanzania, Feb–Mar in Zambia, Oct–Apr in Malawi, Oct–Nov in Botswana, Nov–Mar (mainly Jan–Feb) in Zimbabwe and Dec in Mozambique; mainly Nov–Jan, with some earlier and later records, in South Africa; double-brooded in Malawi, at least. Polygynous, with two or three females per male. Colonial, with up to 300 nests together. Nest oval with simple entrance hole below, quite loosely woven by male from thin strips torn off reeds, grasses and bulrushes (Typha), lined by female with soft reed flowerheads and grass seedheads, placed chiefly in bed of Phragmites reeds, bulrushes or papyrus, occasionally in tree, c. 2·5 m above water or ground; new nest constructed for second brood; nests alongside those of Euplectes orix and Amblyospiza albifrons in S of range; old nests may be used by Brown Firefinch (Lagonosticta nitidula) and Bronze Mannikin (Spermestes cucullata). Clutch 2–3 eggs (average 2·4 in Malawi), usually plain dark chocolate-brown or olive-brown, sometimes blue-green and heavily marked with grey-brown specks, or greenish-white with heavy red-brown markings, average size of 45 eggs 21 x 14·5 mm (South Africa); incubation by female only, period 14–17 days; chicks fed by female alone, nestling period 14–19 days. Probably parasitized by Diederik Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx caprius). Sensitive to disturbance, and nests often abandoned after inspection. Male first breeds at 22–24 months of age. In ringing studies in Malawi, oldest individual recaptured 13 years after first ringed; estimated annual mortality rate of adults 49%, of first-years 55%; estimated annual survival rate of adults 70% after 17-year study.

Not globally threatened. Locally abundant. In Mozambique, estimated population more than 10,000 individuals in C region of country and 1000 in S. Numbers in Botswana and in S Mozambique appear to have declined in recent years. In NE South Africa, old inland record from Mpumalanga. Occurs locally in dense colonies, but vulnerable to disturbance of wetlands.