- Bocage's Weaver
 - Bocage's Weaver
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 - Bocage's Weaver
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Bocage's Weaver Ploceus temporalis Scientific name definitions

Adrian J. F. Craig
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated June 17, 2013

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Field Identification

15 cm; 34–37 g. Male breeding has golden-yellow forehead and crown, olive-green nape, upperparts and tail; upperwing olive-brown, remiges with narrow yellow edges; lores, cheek and ear-coverts dusky olivaceous; chin and throat with long bib of dusky olive, breast, belly, thighs and undertail-coverts yellow; iris cream; bill black; legs brown to pinkish. Male non-breeding is olive-green from forehead to tail, with lores, cheek and ear-coverts olive-green, chin and throat yellowish, breast, flanks and thighs light olive-green, belly and undertail-coverts grey; bill and legs brown. Female resembles non-breeding male, but iris brown. Juvenile undescribed.

Systematics History

In the past sometimes considered conspecific with P. capensis. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

C & NE Angola, S DRCongo and NW Zambia.

Habitat

Streamside vegetation such as rank grassland, tall forbs, bushes and trees; to 1400 m in Zambia.

Movement

Presumed resident.

Diet and Foraging

Insects; beetles (Coleoptera), caterpillars (Lepidoptera) and grasshoppers (Orthoptera) recorded in stomach contents. Spiders (Araneae) in stomach of chick. Found in flocks of up to c. 50 individuals.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song a chattering series of notes, "shreti-shreti-shreti-shret shret". Contact call "chyap".

Breeding

Breeds in May, Aug and Oct in Angola Aug–Oct in Zambia. Probably polygynous. Colonial; more than 30 nests at one site and up to 20 in one tree. Nest ovoid, with entrance below, may have short entrance tunnel, loosely woven from grass stems or strips from grass blades and palm leaves, with grass seedheads in lining, suspended from branch over water or in elephant grass alongside river. Clutch 2 eggs (mean in Zambia), plain sky-blue, average size of 20 eggs 23·7 x 15·6 mm (Zambia); no information on incubation and nestling periods. Brood parasitism by Diederik Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx caprius) recorded in Zambia.
Not globally threatened. Not well known; considered uncommon within limited known range. Very local; range highly fragmented.
Distribution of the Bocage's Weaver - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Bocage's Weaver

Recommended Citation

Craig, A. J. F. (2020). Bocage's Weaver (Ploceus temporalis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bocwea1.01
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